Clara Furse is the Chief Executive of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and a veteran in the world of finance.

The 48-year-old investment banker started her career in the City of London almost two decades ago. She has spent most of that time working in the cutting edge world of financial derivatives, such as futures and options, and gaining a range of top jobs along the way.

Jobs included, Group Chief Executive of Credit Lyonnais Rouse from 1998 to 2000; Director of LIFFE from 1991 to 1999, and Deputy Chairman from 1997 to 1999.

She was at Phillips & Drew (now UBS) from 1983 to 1998 and became a Director in 1988, Executive Director in 1992, Managing Director in 1995, Global Head of Futures in 1996. She is a Non-Executive Director of Euroclear plc, LCH.Clearnet and RICS Foundation.

She was appointed Chief Executive of the LSE in January 2001.

It’s becoming clearer that London Stock Exchange boss Clara Furse has turned her back on a deal with Nasdaq, her importunate American suitor.

Not only did she refuse to meet Robert Greifeld for tea at the Ritz when he made a 950p ($18) a share offer earlier this year, she’s now raising a rearguard of opposition to Nasdaq among small shareholders and brokers. This lady is not for turning.

Meanwhile across the channel in springlike Paris, Jean-Francois Theodore, Euronext’s chief, is rueing the way some hedge-fund investors are pushing him towards a merger with Deutsche Borse.

That he has a thing or two in common with Clara is obvious and it seems they are eyeing each other up anew despite Theodore’s recent statement that he was not interested in the LSE. That, of course, may just be because he recognizes Nasdaq’s 24pc stake has placed a bid beyond his reach.

Matters are further complicated by the New York Stock Exchange’s extravagant interest in Euronext and a possible further link with the German exchange.

It’s all becoming so confusing, especially as a falling dollar is adding to Nasdaq’s costs in any takeover of the LSE. They will need to get 90pc to succeed in any case, but if Furse can muster the 12pc shareholding of the small brokers in opposition, a bid could be blocked leaving Nasdaq in an exposed position should the share price fall back.

All may now turn on Euronext’s annual meeting on May 23. Theodore’s strength there will provide many clues to how this tense standoff will shake down in the months to come.

In today’s Times Business, Robert Cole comes to the same conclusions about Nasdaq as this website did yesterday:

NASDAQ’S actions alone are speaking louder than everyone else’s words together in the battle for the future of the London Stock Exchange. The junior American exchange’s declared shareholding is almost up to the important 25 per cent barrier, beyond which a minority can block key strategic moves. Nasdaq’s buying is also ratcheting up the price of a bid, to itself but also to any other suitor such as the outgunned Euronext or the outrun New York Stock Exchange. Nasdaq has not won but it is making a rival’s task increasingly impossible.

Sadly, Sarbox* is a word that will be on everyone’s lips for some time to come. Clara has probably blown it.

* The U.S. regulatory rules brought in to clean up corporate America following the ENRON and WorldCom calamities. Formally known as Sarbanes-Oxley.

The London Stock Exchange has two great advantages over its rivals:

1. a liberal regulatory regime that makes the U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley rules seem draconian.

2. a place at the heart of a financial centre whose global reach makes the European exchanges appear parochial.

These confer on the LSE advantages few financial institutions can even dream of. Why then is the 300-year-old institution in such peril?

The first reason goes back to 2001 when Clara Furse botched the buyout of Liffe, the London International Financial and Futures Exchange. Although her bid topped that of Euronext, her presentation to the Liffe board was said to be arrogant — she had previously worked for the exchange and seemed to assume she could have it as of right. Big mistake..

The second stems from the raid on LSE shares by Nasdaq, which is now London’s biggest shareholder with 18.7 percent. At the time of Nasdaq’s bid, Furse rebuffed Nasdaq chief, Robert Greifeld, by refusing to meet him. Now, as she she tries to see him, she’s comprehensively snubbed.

With the New York Stock Exchange eyeing Euronext rather than the LSE, and the Deutsche Borse looking at Euronext too, the way is opening for a troika of exchanges to emerge, one so big that it would dominate the world. The LSE would be easy pickings for such a mega-rival, or left at the mercy of Nasdaq, which would bring American regulatory restrictions to its British subsidiary.

The chief problem is that the British Government allows any foreign firm to buy out a UK one, even an icon of Britishness, like the LSE. The same doesn’t apply in any of the rival regimes.

The LSE desperately needs some cover from Gordon Brown’s Treasury. There’s precious little of that around right now for Clara’s ugly duckling.