ESMA shall organise separate selection procedures to appoint a single consolidated tape provider (CTP) for five-year terms for: bonds; shares and ETFs; and OTC derivatives or relevant subclasses. ESMA must initiate the bonds procedure by 29 December 2024, the shares and ETFs procedure within six months of the bonds initiation, and the OTC derivatives procedure within three months of the date of application of the delegated act referred to in Article 27(5) and no earlier than six months after the initiation of the shares and ETFs procedure. Subsequent procedures must be timed to avoid disruption to the consolidated tape.

ESMA will select applicants based on criteria including technical ability and resilience, compliance with Article 27h organisational requirements, capability to receive/consolidate/disseminate required pre‑ and post‑trade data (as specified), governance, dissemination speed, data quality arrangements, development and operating costs, fees and licensing models (and Article 13 compliance), bonds revenue redistribution (Article 27h(5)), use of modern interfaces, record‑keeping (Article 27ha(3)), business continuity and cyber‑risk measures, energy‑consumption mitigation, and necessity for joint applicants. Applicants must provide information demonstrating these arrangements at application. ESMA shall adopt a reasoned selection decision within six months of initiation and invite the selected applicant to apply for authorisation; if no applicant is selected or authorised, ESMA shall re‑initiate a selection within six months of the end of the unsuccessful procedure.