#Exchange #merger: is the wave still strong?

Consolidation happens to every industry. In the past few years, a strong wave of mergers between some of the world’s biggest exchanges has been raging through the U.S., Europe and Asia-Pacific: the New York Stock Exchange wooed Euronext, NASDAQ bought OMX, Chicago’s two big exchanges merged and London Stock Exchange bought Borsa Italiana.

This mania wave subsided a little most recently. Singapore Exchange Ltd terminated its $8 billion bid for Australia’s ASX Ltd after the Australian government formally rejected the offer last year. And the merger between NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Boerse, which could have formed the biggest exchange group in the world by market volume if it went through, was blocked by the European Commission.

Facing such setbacks, some exchanges are still optimistic about the future of more consolidation in the global financial market. For example, IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) still thinks big exchange mergers are allowed.

So what exact do exchanges think about mergers? Who and how can they partner with? What are the benefits and challenges? What does it mean to big exchanges and smaller ones respectively? To discuss all these question, a group of global exchange leaders are assembled and plenty of time will be devoted at the Exchange Technology World Chicago 2012 conference.