“The momentum is going towards the NYSE Euronext system for the stock market,” Reto Francioni told the German business daily Handelsblatt, while “on the derivative side it is probably our system that will be used.”

That would mean an end to Frankfurt’s Xetra trading platform, but Francioni said that “Frankfurt and the financial sector will profit” from the merger and that fears over its decline were “unfounded.”

The merger will combine operators in Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt, Lisbon, New York and Paris to create the world’s largest financial market, pending approval by regulatory agencies.

Staff of both Deutsche Börse and NYSE Euronext have been invited to propose names for the new group, Francioni said.

AFP/ka