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Financial Market Dissertations

S/F/22. Dissertation. Consolidation of European financial markets: Is a single European stock exchange a future reality?

WORDS:

8500

DATE:

2003

PRICE:

89.99 GBP

Pan-European trading, where European companies of various nationalities will trade on the same exchanges, will obviously happen, with Europe moving closer to financial and economic integration. The single currency has been a key issue in Europe. This has given a boost to cross-border investment, encouraging people to view Europe as one market and to demand the infrastructure necessary to support its operation as a single market. Despite this appeal, most stock exchanges in Europe are national institutions that trade only local, country-specific stocks. Having a fragmented solution in Europe has added to costs, specifically back office costs, since it has been necessary to interface with multiple exchanges, clearing houses and settlement systems. Recently this market structure appears to be changing as an increasing number of stock exchanges are attempting to operate across national borders. There were several initiatives for mergers and acquisitions between stock exchanges in order to create a stock exchange that will offer trading in stocks from many European countries. However the formation of the pan-European Stock Exchange still appears far from a reality. This paper will discuss the main obstacle to cross-border securities trading, how they can be overcome and the strategies that can be followed by European stock exchanges in order to achieve this consolidation. The paper will also put in doubt the creation of a single pan-European stock exchange as the best solution for a unified Europe.

KEYWORDS: f, dissertation, consolidation, european, financial, markets, single, european, stock, exchange, future, reality,