London Stock Exchange’s chief executive Clara Furse has dismissed the rival trading platform, Project Turquoise, as possibly non-viable.

In a confident riposte to the group of seven investment banks seeking to take business from the LSE, she likened the new body to the London exchange’s previous mutual status when it was difficult “to resolve the conflicts of interest that exist when only one part of the market controls the trading platform”.

London remains the most successful of the world’s stock exchanges, raising £54 billion ($105 bn) last year, twice what Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange managed between them. The LSE’s profits rose 73 percent in the same period, with both buoyant Russia and China piling into the light-touch trading regime which is situated in a congenial timezone for their operations.

Furse also believes the rival banks’ platform will not be able to compete with the LSE’s 4pence fee from £1000 worth of shares purchased.

Project Turquoise responded, “We are very much on track to be up and running and reduce the total cost of trading for those who buy and sell shares”.

This summer the LSE will unveil its own new platform, TradElect.