What is the UK Bond Consolidated Tape?

The UK bond Consolidated Tape (CT) is a centralised data service designed to improve transparency and accessibility in the UK bond markets. Operated through ETS Connect UK as an FCA-regulated service, the CT plays a central role in collecting and disseminating market data from across the financial ecosystem.
This data is sourced from all relevant market contributors in the UK, including trading venues and Approved Publication Arrangements (APAs). By bringing together information from multiple sources into a single, unified feed, the CT enables market participants to access consistent and reliable post-trade data.
The service provides details of individual bond transactions, including price, quantity, and the exact time of each transaction. By making this information widely available, the CT supports greater transparency, more efficient price discovery, and a fairer competitive environment across the market.

 

Scope and Coverage

The UK bond CT is designed to capture a comprehensive view of UK bond market activity by aggregating post-trade data from all sources. Its coverage spans transactions reported by trading venues and APAs, ensuring that both on-venue and off-venue trades are included.
The UK bond CT is not limited to sterlingdenominated bonds. Its scope includes all corporate and sovereign bonds traded in the UK, regardless of currency or issuer domicile. This includes, for example, UK, EU and emerging market sovereign bonds, UK and EU corporate debt, as well as US Treasuries and US credit.
This broad scope allows the CT to reflect a comprehensive picture of market activity, rather than fragmented snapshots from individual platforms. As a result, investors, asset managers, and other market participants can make more informed decisions based on a holistic understanding of trading behavior and liquidity across UK bond markets.

 

Quality Control

High data quality is central to the effectiveness of the CT. ETS Connect UK has a regulatory obligation to ensure that the data it disseminates through the service is accurate, timely, and standardised.
This is achieved through automated validation of incoming data, consistency checks across reporting sources, and the application of common formatting and data standards. Strong quality control processes alongside regulatory oversight help ensure that users can trust the integrity of the information for critical use cases such as regulatory compliance, price discovery, and effective decision-making.