The German stock exchange operator Deutsche Boerse is to release 2010 results this week as it holds tie-up talks with NYSE Euronext in a bid to build the world's biggest exchange by revenues and profit.
The talks were unveiled last week just after the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and TMX Group, which covers Toronto and Montreal, announced their merger in one of several global deals that are rewriting the book on financial markets.
Revised regulations, challengers like the US-based trading platforms BATS and Chi-X, which are also in talks, and a planned merger of markets in Singapore and Sydney underscore the pace of change in what was once a rather staid profession.
Deutsche Boerse's supervisory board will meet Tuesday, a day before the annual results are published, and negotiations with NYSE Euronext are on the agenda, a financial source in Frankfurt told AFP. "Such a deal will create the largest exchange in the world and will start to put pressure on the smaller exchanges to fall into line," Denham said.