Data reporting services providers

Services provided by DRSPs enhance transparency and effective supervision of financial markets, enabling both the FCA and investors to receive accurate and comprehensive trading data.

Entities must be authorised or verified by the FCA before providing a data reporting service.

There are 3 types of DRSPs:

• Approved reporting mechanisms (ARMs) – the service of reporting details of transactions to the FCA on behalf of investment firms.
• Approved publication arrangements (APAs) – the service of publishing post-trade transparency reports on behalf of investment firms.
• Consolidated tape providers (CTPs) – the service of collecting post-trade transparency reports of specific financial instruments from regulated markets, multilateral trading facilities, organised trading facilities and APAs. The CTP then consolidates these reports into a continuous electronic live data stream providing price and volume information per financial instrument.

In line with our Approach to Supervision, we supervise DRSPs as members of a portfolio of firms that share a common business model.

In December 2024, we issued our second portfolio letter[2] to all DRSPs, reinforcing our expectations and highlighting our current concerns regarding firms in the portfolio. This follows our initial letter[3] in May 2022, which set out our expectations for minimising risks to consumers, market integrity, and competition arising from regulatory non-compliance.

DRSP authorisation process

Any entity intending to provide a data reporting service in the UK as a regular occupation or business must be authorised (or, in the case of operators of trading venues, the operator’s compliance with the Data Reporting Services Regulations 2024 to be verified) by us before providing a data reporting service.

How to apply

Please pay the appropriate fee and submit:

• Annex I application form (docx)[4]
• Annex II notification form for list of members of a management body (docx)[5]

Supporting documentation

Applicants will need to submit both completed forms, along with any supporting documentation, by email to [email protected].

We will respond within 6 months of receiving the completed application.

DRSP and Market Data Processor (MDP) fees

DRSP fees

Authorisation fee:

The authorisation fee to operate a data reporting service falls in Category 5 for the first application and a discount of 50% for each additional data reporting service application. The discount applies irrespective of whether the applications were made at the same time or later. The fee is not refundable, even where an application is unsuccessful.

Periodic fee:

The DRSP periodic supervisory fee is set out in Fees 4 Annex 11R.

MDP fees

The associated MDP on-boarding fees applicable to DRSPs are:

• transaction reports (ARM) in Category 7
• transparency calculation data (APA) in Category 6

To check the correct payable fees, please refer to:

• Authorisation fee - FEES 3 Annex 1A[6]. For more information, please see pricing categories for application fees[7].
• Periodic fee - FEES 4 Annex 11R.
• MDP fee - FEES 3.2.7

DRSP regulatory framework

Please refer to:

• The Data Reporting Services Regulations 2024 (PDF)[8]
• UK MiFIR[9]
• UK MiFID Org Regulation (Commission Delegated Regulation 2017/565)[10]
• UK MiFIR Delegated Regulation (Commission Delegated Regulation 2017/567)[11]
• MAR 9 of the Handbook[12]
• Also, the onshored technical standards on:
  • transparency requirements for trading venues and investment firms in respect of shares, depositary receipts, exchange-traded funds, certificates and other similar financial instruments and the obligation for investment firms to execute transactions in certain shares on a trading venue or a systematic internaliser (Commission Delegated Regulation 2017/587)[13]
  • transparency requirements for trading venues and investment firms in respect of bonds, structured finance products, emission allowances and derivatives (Commission Delegated Regulation 2017/583) (PDF)[14]

Authorised DRSPs