AFME is pleased to publish “Guiding Principles for Data Sharing: A Perspective for European Capital Markets”, which has been developed with input from members of the AFME Data Strategy Working Group.

Data sharing is an essential function within European capital markets, in which firms see opportunities for further data sharing to support common objectives such as greater security and resilience, sustainability, innovation and compliance and monitoring.

European authorities have also similarly identified the value of data, both within and across sectors. For example, the European Data Strategy, published by the European Commission in February 2020, sets out an ambitious horizontal strategy for promoting data-driven innovation across multiple industry sectors and providing clear rules for data access.

However, barriers to data sharing remain, with high costs, security and data protection risks and a lack of standardisation, all of which currently reduce incentives for sharing between market participants. We believe these issues must first be addressed as part of any further data sharing initiatives in order to be cost-effective and bring value to the market and end users.

This paper examines these opportunities, barriers and risks in further detail, and concludes by providing nine guiding principles to support European policymakers in addressing the risks and barriers identified when implementing future data sharing policies. These principles are also applicable in a global context, and we welcome further collaboration between public authorities and the industry across jurisdictions to support the development of global data standards and cross-border data sharing arrangements.