EMCF and EuroCCP have received regulatory approval to combine into a new pan-European cash equities clearing house, while LCH.Clearnet names new group chief executive.
The two firms, which announced plans to merge in March, have been given unconditional clearance by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), the UK’s consumer and competition authority.
The new entity – set to become Europe’s largest cash equities clearing house - will be called EuroCCP NV and will be headquartered in Amsterdam.
EuroCCP’s current CEO, Diana Chan, will head up the new business, while Jan Booji, CEO of EMCF, will become COO in the new entity.
“We are grateful to the OFT for reaching a swift decision in relation to combining EMCF and EuroCCP,” Chan said. “We are pleased that their conclusions support our own assessment that bringing the two companies together is in the best interests of competition in the clearing of European cash equities.”
Booji said: “We will now focus on completing the transaction and delivering the best practices of both companies to all of our customers as well as providing sustainable competition to the European clearing market.”
The current owners of both firms – ABN AMRO Clearing Bank, Nasdaq OMX, the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation and BATS Chi-X Europe – will be equal shareholders in the new business. EuroCCP NV is still waiting for the green light from Dutch regulators.
Meanwhile, LCH.Clearnet has appointed Suneel Bakhshi, president and CEO at Citigroup global Markets Japan, as its new group chief executive officer.
Bakhshi, who has worked at Citigroup since 1982, is expected to join the organisation in early 2014. He will also become a member of London Stock Exchange Group’s (LSEG) executive committee, headed by LSEG CEO Xavier Rolet. LSEG is a 57.8% shareholder in LCH.Clearnet.
“As CEO of LCH.Clearnet Group, I will look forward to utilising more than 30 years of global financial industry experience and to joining a business and a team that will undoubtedly play a vital role in the future of the global market infrastructure industry,” Bakhshi said.