|
|
European clearing house LCH.Clearnet has held merger talks with
The FT said the two sides had talked ‘intermittently’ over the last nine months, but the negotiations were by no means likely to result in a deal.
The paper said a tie-up between the two would create
FT Article:
Talks on creating
Europe’s largest clearing house, LCH.Clearnet, and The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation of the US have held talks about a possible combination that would create the first post-trade services group straddling the Atlantic, people familiar with the situation said.
The talks come as
LCH.Clearnet has been left reeling by the possible loss of business from two of its main customers, the London Stock Exchange and Liffe, the futures exchange.
Any merger with LCH.Clearnet – likely structured as a takeover by the DTCC – would create by far the largest clearing and settlement group in
But the people familiar with the situation said the talks, under way intermittently over the past nine months, were by no means likely to result in a deal.
Stuart Goldstein, DTCC spokesman, said: “I’m not in a position to comment on that, other than that we always have discussions with other infrastructure organisations in
LCH.Clearnet declined to comment.
The biggest users of exchanges and trading platforms – such as banks – argue that
US costs are lower than in
Through a subsidiary, DTCC clears and settles almost all stock trades done in the
By contrast,
A clearer guarantees that two parties to a trade do not default, while settlement ensures that the ownership of the traded asset and cash change hands.
Charlie McCreevy, EU internal market commissioner, this month expressed frustration at slow progress on a “code of conduct” he brokered with exchanges, clearers and settlement systems to cut cross-border costs by opening up their post-trade businesses to each other.
The emergence of DTCC may indicate that the
By Jeremy Grant in