Europe Raises Concerns About NYSE-Deutsche Börse Merger (NY Times)

I read the paper on the iPad – but I still get a kick out of being quoted in print (see page B6 of today’s NY Times).  But I digress…

It looks like the European’s aren’t as into the proposed NYSE/Deutsche Borse merger as the Americans are.  Although details are not yet available, it seems likely they’re concerned with the tie up of Liffe and Eurex creating a near European monopoly on futures trading.  But in my opinion, that ignores how global the derivatives markets are.  CME has 98% of futures volume in the US.  This certainly makes it hard for new futures exchange to get much traction (ELX keeps trying and Liffe US seems to be getting somewhere), but since CME competes on a global rather than a regional stage they’re certainly not resting on their laurels or over charging customers.  My comments in the paper:

Kevin McPartland, head of fixed income research at the TABB Group, said the European regulators were looking at the impact on a regional level, while antitrust authorities in the United States — who saw a combined entity competing globally with rivals in New York and Singapore — had taken a more global view in granting their approval.

If the companies were told to sell Liffe as a condition for approval, he said, “it would look a lot less appealing.” But he added: “There are enough potential compromises that they could work through most concerns.”

Read the full story at NYTimes.com (or on page B6!).

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