Gilt and Treasury Bill Reference Price Provision
Information
Until 21 July 2017 the DMO published daily end of day gilt and Treasury bill reference prices on behalf of the Gilt-edged Market Makers Association (GEMMA) and CREST respectively.
As a first step towards withdrawing from the provision of these prices, the DMO engaged with market participants, data providers, market infrastructure providers and other stakeholders in order to explore with them the markets’ requirements for gilt and Treasury bill prices; to build stakeholder consensus around the conditions for the DMO ceasing to provide reference prices; and to help to identify potential alternative ways that requirements can be met.
In May 2015 the DMO published the feedback that it received during this stakeholder engagement process and in July it announced that the government intends to establish a formal and independent process to review the provision of reference prices and facilitate the transition to a successor arrangement through the appointment of an individual to lead the review and oversee the transition.
In January 2016, the government appointed Professor David Miles CBE, professor at Imperial College, London and former member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, to lead this review.
On 19 May 2016, the Independent Reference Prices Review launched a consultation to gather further views on the necessary features of any successor arrangements and the approach to transitioning to them. All interested parties were encouraged to respond to the consultation by 19 June 2016.
On 5 July 2016, a Request for Proposals was published by the Review as an open invitation for potential providers to submit their proposals to the Review. The Independent Reference Prices Review published its final report on 11 October 2016. The Review found that FTSE Russell and Tradeweb jointly put forward the strongest proposal for future reference price provision and that the DMO should actively assist with, and monitor, the transition to the new pricing arrangement.
From end of March 2017, FTSE Russell and Tradeweb have produced a full set of end-of-day reference prices for gilts, strips and Treasury bills.
On 21 July 2017, the DMO ceased producing reference prices for gilts, strips and Treasury bills as FTSE-Tradeweb succeeds the DMO as the administrator and publisher of these reference prices.
If you would like further information on the solution offered by FTSE Russell and Tradeweb you can contact Tradeweb on ECS@Tradeweb.com or 020 7776 3200. Please also see Tradeweb's website here.