The NYSE Group and Euronext hope to create the world’s largest financial exchange group by the end of March. Their shareholders voted last month to approve a plan to combine the two exchange operators.
The New York Stock Exchange, which plans to complete its merger with Euronext before the end of March, has proposed to the Securities and Exchange Commission a regulatory framework which ensures European firms are not subjected to US rules including Sarbanes-Oxley.
NYSE senior management said on numerous occasions last year that European brokers and listed companies have nothing to fear from regulatory “creep” but the 72-page filing published yesterday by the US financial watchdog is the first time NYSE has detailed how the exchanges will be regulated separately while operating as a single entity.
The filing states that European companies will not be required to comply with SEC rules as US firms will not be mandated to adhere to European trading laws.
The SEC has set US firms 35 days to provide feedback on the NYSE proposal, after which time it will make a ruling, but one exchange analyst said: “It’s a formality.”
The merger was emphatically approved by NYSE and Euronext shareholders two weeks ago. The tie-up got the green light from European regulators on December 18 when the Dutch Finance Minister, Gerrit Zalm, said: “I am minded to grant the requested declarations of no objections and the exchange license.”

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