Measuring up the euro-indices
A scattered approach to settlement
The future structure of Europe's equity market is up for grabs. No-one knows exactly how equity is going to be traded after Emu, how investors are going to behave or where liquidity will concentrate. All they know is that the euro-zone market is going to be big - second only to the US - and is likely to get bigger. For stock exchanges the race is on to create the platform from which euro equities will be traded.
It is widely acknowledged that today's fragmented market, with 28 national stock exchanges enjoying virtual domestic monopolies, cannot survive. "It's a bit of a dinosaur problem," says Stanislas Yassukovich, chairman of Easdaq, the pan-European market for high-growth companies. "A good many national exchanges are redundant. But we know how vested interests can dig their heels in." It took a direct hit from a comet to...
