or companies, once they have reached the NYSE entry requirements, to go to that market place. With this increased competition generated by technological growth it has made the pressure for the larger exchanges to maximise their trading volumes, reduce overhead costs, and therefore achieve economies of scale. (Bank Of England, 1999). For markets to keep these economies of scale, they must continually update their technologies, hence increasing their overall market scope. The mergers and links that have taken place, using these aforementioned technologies are able to reduce costs for the markets, increase their own bargaining power and strengthen their cross-border competitiveness, thus making an option to merge markets or link national or international markets very inciting to the smaller markets. Many of these smaller European markets have already, and will continue to increase their use of this currency in their markets. “(With) the arrival of the Euro…the notion of running separate national stock exchange seems increasingly pointless” (The Economist, 2000). The cross-border investment will increase at an unparalleled level, within Europe, as the Euro will be able to off set any negative exchange movements. This cross-border investment will become even more prevalent with the merger proposed with the LSE, German-Borse and NASDAQ, which will be called NASDAQ-iX. (The Economist, 2000). This proposed new linked market would link these markets, and trade in a similar fashion as the current NASDAQ does, with its quote driven system. All these factors have been influenced by the globalisation of many financial intermediaries. Globalisation is “the process whereby finical markets are interconnected, interdependent and integrated.” (Vinney, 2000:pp27). The global consolidations of the major users and, in some cases owners of markets infrastructure, have a very big influence on the market structure. Through the...
