Talks Prolonged on London/Frankfurt Stock Exchange Merger
The ongoing negotiations between London and Frankfurt to merge their stock exchanges have apparently reached a critical stage. The management and the supervisory boards of the Frankfurt Exchange were set to meet today and discuss the current state of the proposals, but no decision is expected to be announced before next week.
The merger of the two exchanges would create Europe’s largest stock trading facility, and is in response to the increase in electronic trading and the recent announcement that the Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels exchanges plan to merge.
It is also widely rumored the the U.S. Nasdaq has joined the negotiations with a radical proposal to trade shares listed on Nasdaq in Europe over the combined exchanges. The goal, according to reports, is to create a “Super Stock Exchange,” which would be capable of executing trades 24 hours a day.