Reading the Tape

On Friday 31 July 2026, the Financial Conduct Authority published its policy statement, CP26/31, finalising the rulebook for a UK equity consolidated tape — a single, continuously updated feed combining post-trade prices and volumes, plus the best available pre-trade quotes, from every UK trading venue in one place. The rules took effect immediately, building on the initial framework the FCA consulted on in CP25/31 back in November 2025.

Until now, anyone wanting a full picture of UK share prices has had to buy separate feeds from the London Stock Exchange, Aquis, Cboe and other venues, or rely on brokers to stitch them together — a fragmentation that raises costs and makes it harder to verify whether a trade was done at a fair price. The FCA will now run a process to appoint a single consolidated tape provider (CTP) to build and operate the feed, as reported by Regulation Tomorrow.

Alongside the tape rules, the FCA published a second, companion paper on Friday 31 July 2026 — CP26/30 — opening a wider consultation on UK equity market structure, inviting views on whether the sheer number of trading venues, dark pools and order types now available has made the market too complicated for ordinary investors to navigate, even as it remains, on paper, more competitive than ever. A Call for Input closes on 18 September 2026, with a further chapter of feedback due 16 October 2026, and the FCA expects to publish a fuller policy statement in the first half of 2027.

Simon Walls, the FCA's executive director of markets, acknowledged the tension directly: UK markets had grown through "competition, innovation and the choices made by investors and companies," but "a downside of choice can be complexity" — one he said need not come at the cost of transparency. Nothing is decided yet; this is the start of a debate, not a rule.

Amaroq Ltd, the Reykjavik-based miner developing gold and strategic-metal projects in southern Greenland, was admitted to the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange at 8am on Friday 31 July 2026, the same moment its shares were cancelled from AIM — the LSE's junior market for smaller, growing companies — following Thursday's final session there. No new shares were issued; all 466,244,132 existing shares simply moved up a tier, continuing to trade under ticker AMRQ.

The move followed a prospectus approved by the FCA and published on 29 July 2026, alongside an updated Mineral Resource Estimate. Citigroup Global Markets acted as sponsor. The board was refreshed for the switch: Sigurbjorn Thorkelsson becomes non-executive chairman, with three new independent non-executive directors joining, while founder-era director Graham Stewart stays on. Chief executive Eldur Olafsson said the move would broaden access to institutional capital; UK Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds called it "a strong vote of confidence in the UK economy and our capital markets."