What we do · Speedway Assessment
Market data —
a 2026 business priority.
Control, compliance, savings and avoidance — the Speedway Assessment is the structured diagnostic that produces a board-ready baseline of the market data function before any change is made.
Why now
Three structural pressures reshaping the economics of market data.
Most firms are exposed on more than one.
- $49.2B
Global financial services market data spend in 2025 — the sixth consecutive year of mid-single-digit growth.
Burton-Taylor International
- Top 5
Market data is consistently a Top 5 expense category at most investment managers — yet typically the most opaque.
Industry benchmarking
- 80%
Of buy-side firms expect market data budgets to keep rising over the next twelve months.
Industry survey
What this looks like
Inside most firms.
- Spend is growing faster than AUM, headcount, or transaction volumes — and faster than inflation.
- Cross-functional ownership is distributed across procurement, IT, finance, market data and the desks — no one owns it firm-wide.
- Vendor leverage favors the suppliers; visibility into usage, entitlements and renewals is often partial.
Why the moment matters
Three observable trends are converging on financial services firms.
- I.
Vendor licensing exposure
Industry coverage documents retrospective liabilities exceeding £2M per market data license audit, with three-year retrospective windows standard. Recent reclassifications of end-of-day data have triggered back-billing across firms using the largest vendor data licenses.
- II.
Active cost reduction across financial services
Industry CFO surveys show a majority implementing cost reductions excluding layoffs; nearly half cite increasing technology use to reduce costs as a top funding priority. Boards are asking for visibility into vendor and third-party costs.
- III.
Regulatory enforcement now active
DORA's informal tolerance period has ended; national competent authorities are conducting active enforcement reviews. The MiFIR Review and ESMA's RTS on Reasonable Commercial Basis raise documentation standards for both consumers and providers of market data.
What “good” looks like
Five reinforcing dimensions.
Most firms are strong on one or two; few are strong on all five. The Speedway Assessment measures the firm against each.
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Control
Single source of truth for vendors, contracts and entitlements. Calendared renewals. Defined ownership across procurement, IT, finance, market data and the desks.
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Cost savings + cost avoidance
Hard savings on current spend: inventory-based subscription rationalization, license rightsizing, vendor consolidation. Forward avoidance: negotiated escalation caps, audit back-fees prevented, regulatory exposure addressed.
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Compliance
Documented entitlement controls, vendor audit response procedures stood up, alignment with DORA and the MiFIR Review, exchange entitlement reporting — a defensible audit trail.
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Operational efficiency
Automated user provisioning, reconciled invoices, streamlined entitlement workflows — processes that scale rather than break under volume.
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Transparency
Cross-functional visibility into spend, usage and risk. Board- and audit-committee-ready reporting. A shared language across procurement, finance and the desks.
The Speedway approach
Four phases. In order.
A rapid diagnostic delivered in four to ten weeks calendar, with ten to fifteen hours of stakeholder time required from the client. Vendor-agnostic throughout.
- Phase 0
Foundation
Establish the inputs: contract inventory, organization charts, vendor map and existing policies. The starting picture, written down.
- Phase 1
Discovery
Stakeholder interviews, workflow documentation and architecture review. How the firm actually consumes and pays for market data today.
- Phase 2
Analysis
Maturity scoring, benchmarking, gap analysis and heat-mapped risk. Each finding tied to a specific dollar figure where the data allows.
- Phase 3
Roadmap
Findings, quick wins, a business case and a prioritized set of recommendations sized for the firm. Owner, timing and expected return for each step.
Four focus areas, every engagement
What the assessment covers.
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Cost savings + cost avoidance
Rationalization, consolidation and license rightsizing on current spend; negotiated avoidance of future vendor escalation, audit back-fees and regulatory exposure.
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Licensing & contracts
Contract inventory normalized to a single schema; usage rights reviewed line by line; audit exposure assessed before a vendor auditor finds it.
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Compliance & risk
Entitlement management, vendor compliance, and alignment with DORA, the MiFIR Review and the RTS on Reasonable Commercial Basis.
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Operational efficiency
Process automation, workflow optimization, and operating-model recommendations the firm can stand up itself or with our support.
What you receive
A board- and audit-committee-ready set of deliverables.
Quantified, defensible, ready to act on — the firm keeps everything.
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Executive summary
Findings, opportunity and roadmap — written for management and audit-committee use.
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Risk heat map
Quantified exposure across eight-plus risk areas, scored red, amber and green.
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Maturity scorecard
Five-level scoring across six functional areas, with current state and a twelve-month target.
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Vendor & contract inventory
Normalized spend, contract terms and a calendared renewal schedule.
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Savings + avoidance roadmap
A three-phase prioritized plan: quick wins, near-term moves, medium-term initiatives.
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High-level business case
ROI projections, success metrics, resource and timeline implications — sized to the firm.
Tailored value by stakeholder
What each stakeholder gets from the engagement.
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COO / Chief Data Officer
Operating model & governance
Maturity scoring across functional areas; cross-functional governance gaps surfaced; steering-committee and RACI recommendations; modernization observations without a tech-vendor agenda.
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CFO / Head of Finance
Cost savings, cost avoidance, audit defense
Recoverable spend identified; vendor escalation neutralized; audit and regulatory exposure dollarized. Cost-allocation transparency for chargebacks; board-ready narrative; auditable benchmarking trail.
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Head of Market Data / Operations
External benchmark & function uplift
External validation of cost discipline already advocated for internally; a quantified business case for tools, headcount and governance; vendor negotiation ammunition; audit defense playbook.
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Head of Procurement
Vendor leverage & renewal calendar
Complete normalized vendor inventory; forward renewal calendar; tail consolidation candidates; enterprise license migration analysis; standardized contract clauses on usage, audit and redistribution.