Brussels plans to create central US-style databases with information on publicly traded companies and business activities as part of a campaign to strengthen the integration of its capital markets.

According to the draft documents seen by the Financial Times, the measures will include changes to make it easier for investors to access information on companies operating in the EU and for EU banks and fund managers to find the prices of stocks and bonds across the single market.

The proposals, which are expected to be officially announced next week, aim to make the EU more attractive to international investors after the UK leaves the single market.

“The EU’s global competitiveness is weakened by the fragmentation of its capital markets,” say the draft documents. Reforms to bring about a Capital Markets Union “will in turn help companies tap into the largest pools of capital held by institutional and retail investors across the EU,” they add.

The EU’s business reporting system, known as the Single European Access Point, would consist of common and free public information on companies and products. Currently, most of the information is scattered across multiple jurisdictions.

The project, which is expected to launch in 2024, is expected to be funded from the EU budget and overseen by Esma, the securities regulator, according to the documents.

The authorities want to replicate some of the benefits of services widely used in the United States, the world’s largest capital market, in many of its reforms. They include the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Edgar system for reporting company information and market-wide bands that record trading information on the stock and bond markets.

The European Commission is considering bands that aggregate information collected from the European patchwork of more than 470 exchanges and trading platforms. Europe has long sought a ‘consolidated band’, but private efforts to build one have failed due to competing business interests, as well as slow and uneven data flows.

“The total cost [to investors] of not having a precise vision of the equity markets can reach 10.6 billion euros per year, ”the document indicates.

Regulators have acknowledged that the latest attempt to create a consolidated band, in the Mifid legislation of 2018, failed. Brussels plans to oblige data providers to provide standardized information on tapes. Contributors would get “fair pay” and a minimum income in return, he said.

“Policy development has generally focused on the needs of intermediaries and we welcome the increased attention policymakers are now paying to end investors,” said Stephen Fisher, managing director of the global public policy group at BlackRock , at a conference in London on Thursday.

The proposed changes to the market infrastructure addressed what he saw as Europe’s main weakness – trade fragmented across national borders and which “has hampered the mobilization of capital and investor participation in capital markets. “.

The proposals also include a formal ban on payment for order flow, a controversial practice in which retail brokers hand over their orders to market makers in exchange for a commission. This is widely used in the US and Germany, but effectively banned in most EU countries.

Markus Ferber, a German MEP, welcomed the committee’s decision to address the issue but questioned whether an “outright ban” was the right approach.

The commission also wants to change the caps on the volume of business that can be executed in dark pools – over-the-counter platforms that fund managers to buy and sell large blocks of stocks without disrupting the market price.

In addition, there are plans to tighten the rules on “systematic internalisers” – more lightly regulated invitational markets, largely run by banks and high-frequency traders.

Other proposals include elimination rules that require clearing houses to clear derivatives on rival exchanges, in order to build clearing capacity in the bloc after Brexit. Most of the euro clearing business is based in London.

Next year, the commission will propose changes to the corporate insolvency framework and make it easier for companies to raise funds on stock exchanges, according to the draft documents.

Additional reports from Chris Flood