Merger talks

On Wednesday Belgium said that talks to integrate the Brussels stock exchange with its counterparts in Paris and Amsterdam were very advanced. Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders said the merger project was only one of several possibilities, including alliances with other European stock markets. A decision on the future of the Brussels stock market, which has been in a bad slump, would be made in the "coming days, coming weeks". Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam are part of an eight-bourse alliance set up in 1998, led by the London Stock Exchange and the Deutsche Boerse and including Milan, Madrid, and Zurich. A merger would be the first cross-border stock exchange consolidation in Europe. Paris Bourse, continental Europe's biggest stock market, also confirmed it was in co-operation talks. Like London, the German stock exchange is also planning to demutualise and convert to a private company.