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in Europe . “ We ’ re rarely in a steady state with regulation . We implement something and then months down the line we ’ re looking to change it ,” said Anish Puaar , head of European equity market Structure at Optiver , also speaking at Bloomberg ’ s event . “ It ’ s every time something is introduced – e . g . DVC or SI thresholds – and this tinkering with micro aspects takes up a lot of time and doesn ’ t have any meaningful change in the market . Europe ’ s problems are much bigger than that .” Volumes have indeed become increasingly segmented and internalised in light of the challenging volume environment in Europe . Alongside volumes executed by systematic internalisers , the bilateral and negotiated trade segments have also grown exponentially . This is where many suggest regulators should be focusing their attentions . “ That ' s the bigger macro picture , not squabbling over the double volume caps ,” says Baugh . The UK is now bringing in new requirements in May that will transform the way firms tag trades and subsequently report them , shedding more light on volumes and liquidity taking place off exchange . However , a slight hinderance to this is that the UK and Europe have once again opted for ever so slightly different regimes . “ If we could flag OTC trades and get consistency across the UK an EU it would go a long way to solving a lot of what the consolidated tape is supposed to be doing ,” added Rupert Fennelly , head of electronic trading sales and coverage , Barclays Investment Bank , also speaking at Bloomberg ’ s event .
The events of the last few weeks have exacerbated a desire from participants to see their appointed regulators re-focus their attentions on core structural issues surrounding Europe ’ s trading landscape . As a region , Europe must turn its attention away from the small and arguably arbitrary fixes in favour of a resolution to the larger issues at hand .
“ We need to have some tougher conversations that might be politically difficult such as simplifying post-trade . That would be a much more meaningful debate than some of the tinkering we ’ ve done over the last 10-15 years ,” concluded Puaar .
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