Euronext, the Pan-Continental stock exchange, is said to be pressing on with its plans to merge with the New York Stock Exchange. Final clearance should be obtained by January.

Suggestions that Euronext may walk away from the NYSE deal in favour of a tie-up with Deutsche Borse and Borsa Italiana, have been scotched by a number of sources.

Meanwhile, the London Stock Exchange waits on the next move by Nasdaq, which can now launch a full bid for the LSE, if that’s its intention.

John Thain, CEO of the New York Stock Exchange, has said he will not improve terms of its £10.7 billion merger with Euronext, despite noises from rival Deutsche Borse that its proposal was worth more.

The Times (London) reports: “Speaking to journalists in New York last night, and reported by AFP, Mr Thain said he noted continued moves by Deutsche Borse to lure Euronext away from the agreed merger but said he would not increase his offer price, whatever plan the German exchange came up with.”

Euronext said: “This first half of the year has been the best one ever for cash and derivatives markets and has created the conditions for all business lines to register an increase in their revenues. This strong performance has been achieved in spite of the impact of changes in the scope of consolidation.”

Euronext’s Chief Executive, Jean-Francois Theodore, and John Thain have said they are on course to complete their landmark merger during the first quarter of next year.

The rumblings continue. The Teutonic giant of Frankfurt, Deutsche Borse, is still insisting that its offer of cash and shares for Euronext, the pan-Continental stock exchange, is better than the New York Stock Exchange’s offer because of the rise in the German company’s share price.

However, Euronext, which has agreed to the American offer, insists it can’t keep changing its mind on the basis of day-to-day fluctuations in stock prices. It also points out that the NYSE bid is protected by the fact that 30 pc of it is in cash.

It’s August and the flurry of chatter and activity around the consolidation of world stock exchanges has all but come to a halt.

However, to add to the low-level mutterings about Sarbanes-Oxley rules, the NatWest Three, and American attempts to regulate the world, Angela Knight has written a concise summary of the present position of London in today’s UK Daily Mail.

Angela is Chief Executive of the Association of Private Client Investment Managers and stockbrokers, which has some influence with LSE’s board and stakeholders. She begins her piece in upbeat mode:

“The LSE is now attracting more overseas companies than anyone else — which is one of their huge successes of the last two years. … But London’s success is also a result of over-regulation in the US.”

Although change was necessary after the Enron and WorldCom disasters “… the way the regulators did it through the Sarbanes-Oxley law has resulted in a costly prescriptive set of additional requirements and accounting rules.”

Knight believes that the new move by the US to impose “extraterritoriality” is having a negative effect here because “[i]t means that even though you are not in America, somehow you have to abide by its rules.” She cites the NatWest Three as an example.

“Another example is that the UK allows the NYSE to put dealing screens on desks in the City”, while a reciprocal arrangement is banned by the SEC.

The UK is being swallowed by default while our authorities — no doubt taking a lead from Tony Blair — seem to be supine in defending our interests.

“The solution? … in this area as in many at the moment, America has not got it right and the UK must stand firm against its demands.”

But will it? While Blair hangs on, probably not.