The Financial Conduct Authority has filed an application with the UK's High Court to lift a suspension on a contract it awarded for a bond consolidated tape.
The watchdog is asking the High Court to let it sign a contract with Etrading Software for the provision of the consolidate tape for bonds. A consolidated tape combines multiple sources of trading data into one stream of information, boosting transparency and access by lowering cost and improving quality.
The FCA selected Etrading for the £4.8 million contract in August, but the following month rival bidder Ediphy launched a legal challenge over the selection procedure, leading to the process being automatically suspended.
Ediphy says that a technical fault in the auction software mean that it was wrongfully excluded from bidding, according to Financial News.
The vendor - which in July won a deal with the European Securities and Markets Authority to provide a bond consolidated tape in the EU - is seeking damages.
The FCA is asking the High Court to let it sign a contract with Etrading "so we can move forward with delivering the tape and defending the legal challenge in parallel".
Says a statement: "It is in the public interest to deliver the important benefits of the tape as soon as possible. It is our position that the legal challenge, which we consider to be without merit, should not get in the way of that."