The European Securities and Markets Authority has opened the first selection procedure to appoint a Consolidated Tape Provider (CTP) for shares and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Interested entities must register and submit a request to participate in the procedure by 25 July 2025. The CTP is intended to consolidate pre-trade and post-trade data from contributors such as trading venues into a single continuous electronic stream. Assessment of certain criteria will draw on European Commission-adopted regulatory technical standards dated 12 June 2025, covering (i) consolidated tape input and output data, business clock synchronisation and revenue redistribution by the CTP for shares and ETFs, and (ii) the obligation to make market data available to the public on a reasonable commercial basis; the contract notice and procurement documents are available via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal. Requests will be assessed against exclusion and selection criteria before successful candidates are invited to submit an application, with Q&A handled through the Portal. ESMA expects to adopt a reasoned decision on the selected applicant by the end of 2025; the successful provider will be selected to operate the CTP for five years and then invited to apply for authorisation with ESMA, after which it will be supervised by ESMA.