What is financial market data?
Financial market data is information produced by trading and used to identify, price and monitor financial instruments. Live market data includes bids, offers, trades, volumes and order books. Reference data identifies the instrument, venue, currency and terms. Corporate-action data records dividends, splits, redemptions and other events that change a position or its value.
Financial market data in brief
| Term | financial market data |
|---|---|
| Meaning | Financial market data is information produced by trading and used to identify, price and monitor financial instruments. Live market data includes bids, offers, trades, volumes and order books. Reference data identifies the instrument, venue, currency and terms. Corporate-action data records dividends, splits, redemptions and other events that change a position or its value. |
| Bank use | A trader needs the current bid and offer, an asset manager needs valuations and benchmarks, and a bank needs reference data for settlement and reporting. Speed matters for electronic trading, while completeness and licensing matter for downstream use. A real-time price without corporate actions can produce a wrong return, and an identifier mismatch can attach a correct price to the wrong security. |
| Main risk | Quality controls check timeliness, gaps, duplicates, outliers and identifier mappings. Redundant feeds reduce dependence but can disagree, so the consumer needs a hierarchy and exception process. Licensing is a separate risk: display, derived data, redistribution and non-display use may carry different rights and fees. The market-data licensing page explains those distinctions for firms building products or AI models. |
| Rule set | MiFIR and MiFID II create transparency and reporting duties for EU trading, while exchange rulebooks and contracts govern feed use. GDPR may apply when datasets contain personal information, but most quoted market prices are not personal data. DORA covers the resilience of ICT services and data providers used by financial entities. |
| Detailed page | Detailed guide |
How does financial market data work?
Financial market data is information produced by trading and used to identify, price and monitor financial instruments. Live market data includes bids, offers, trades, volumes and order books. Reference data identifies the instrument, venue, currency and terms. Corporate-action data records dividends, splits, redemptions and other events that change a position or its value.
Trading venues publish feeds with sequence numbers and timestamps. A financial market data API or feed distributes updates, while a database holds histories and instrument masters. Front-office systems perform financial market data analysis for prices and risk; back-office systems use reference data for settlement and reporting. Entitlements and market data management decide which user or application may receive each product.
Why does financial market data matter to banks?
A trader needs the current bid and offer, an asset manager needs valuations and benchmarks, and a bank needs reference data for settlement and reporting. Speed matters for electronic trading, while completeness and licensing matter for downstream use. A real-time price without corporate actions can produce a wrong return, and an identifier mismatch can attach a correct price to the wrong security.
What risks and design choices come with financial market data?
Quality controls check timeliness, gaps, duplicates, outliers and identifier mappings. Redundant feeds reduce dependence but can disagree, so the consumer needs a hierarchy and exception process. Licensing is a separate risk: display, derived data, redistribution and non-display use may carry different rights and fees. The market-data licensing page explains those distinctions for firms building products or AI models.
Which rules and standards apply to financial market data?
MiFIR and MiFID II create transparency and reporting duties for EU trading, while exchange rulebooks and contracts govern feed use. GDPR may apply when datasets contain personal information, but most quoted market prices are not personal data. DORA covers the resilience of ICT services and data providers used by financial entities.
Financial market data in Germany, Austria and Switzerland
Deutsche Börse operates Xetra and Eurex from Frankfurt and distributes their market data. BaFin supervises German trading conduct, the FMA does so in Austria and FINMA in Switzerland. SIX is a major Swiss market and data operator. Frankfurt also hosts WM Datenservice, which supplies instrument and corporate-action reference data used in securities processing across German finance.
About Finance Loop: financial market data
Finance Loop brings together bank technology, payments, capital markets and supervisory professionals who work on financial market data. In Frankfurt, technical decisions meet the systems of the ECB, Bundesbank, Deutsche Börse and the banks based there.
The detailed page on financial market data and Finance Loop events connect the definition with financial-sector projects and practitioners.