Exchange Consolidations: Success and Failure
25 Pages Posted: 1 May 2016 Last revised: 19 Aug 2016
Date Written: April 25, 2016
Abstract
Exchange mergers are not a new phenomenon. Domestic and regional exchanges have been consolidating for decades but in March 2007 the trading world changed with the sudden merger of the New York Stock Exchange and Paris-based Euronext. Euronext itself was a consolidation of several European exchanges. However, the NYSE Euronext merger was the big deal, creating, for a time at least, the largest exchange in the world and linking the United States and Europe. The truly global exchange could not be far behind.
Over time however, formal exchange consolidations appeared to founder, raising the question as to why some succeeded and others failed. The exchanges were chasing growth across business lines and territorial borders, in the hope that scale and diversification would increase revenue and reduce costs. But profound market changes were nipping at their heels, and in some cases, overtaking the traditional exchange. An exchange merger would not necessarily neutralize a potential competitor; the main competitors to any exchange were no longer other exchanges.
This paper is the introductory chapter to a study, funded by the Centre for International Finance and Regulation (Sydney, Australia) which chronicles the major exchange consolidations of the last decade, successful and unsuccessful.
Keywords: Stock exchanges, NYSE Euronext, London Stock Exchange, Deutsche Boerse, Toronto Stock Exchange, Australian Stock Exchange, Singapore Stock Exchange, HKEx, Shanghai Stock Exchange, Shenzhen Stock Exchange, consolidations, mergers
JEL Classification: G15, G34, K22
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation