The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is to sell its transaction reporting service to the London Stock Exchange in a deal worth £15 million.

The service is currently used for the reporting of transactions in regulated instruments by firm to the FSA in accordance with Market in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) regulations.

The information is in turn used by the FSA to detect and investigate suspected cases of market abuse, insider trading and market manipulation.

According to the regulator, a 'competitive market' for these services has evolved and was confident that the market had developed to enable firms to meet reporting obligations.

The regulator said the sales process, in which it was advised by PricewaterhouseCoopers and legal firm Mills & Reeve, had been 'lengthy and competitive'.

The completion of the deal is subject to clearance by the Office of Fair Trading.

David Lester, director of information services at the London Stock Exchange Group, said, 'Customers will benefit from a significantly improved product and access to a wide range of value added solutions.

'This underlines our commitment to our customers in assisting them with all their execution and trade processing needs.'

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