The European Securities and Markets Authority called for the establishment of an EU-wide real-time consolidated tape for equity instruments, saying the move is necessary to address fragmentation in the region's markets and create a real single market.

Several factors will be key in the creation of such a tape, including the mandatory contribution of data by trading venues and the tape sharing revenues with contributing entities, the regulator said.

Previous efforts to establish a tape failed mainly due to limited commercial rewards for prospective providers under current rules and potential competition from regulated entities such as data vendors, ESMA noted.

Meanwhile, ESMA proposed a mix of legislative changes and supervisory guidance affecting European exchanges, saying the reforms are aimed at improving transparency and ensuring the provision of market data on a reasonable commercial basis, after it found that the MiFID II regime had not reduced the cost of market data.