Kicking off a global trend

The December merger between two of Europe’s largest derivatives exchanges looks likely to set in motion a wave of consolidation among bourses, clearing and settlement houses and derivative exchanges themselves.

It may not yet amount to a European financial ‘Big Bang’, but the takeover of London’s resurgent derivatives exchange by a rival European group towards the end of 2001, may well have lit the fuse. The takeover, which became unconditional on December 27, not only has serious consequences for Europe’s clearing houses, but is likely to alter the balance in the jockeying for supremacy among the major stock exchanges. Some optimists even believe it could pave the way for derivatives exchange