…Niki Beattie, founder of Market Structure Partners, said: “It’s proven very difficult for exchanges to get deals done with other exchanges either because of competition issues or because of protection of “perceived national assets”.

It was a view echoed by Mr Schwimmer, who acknowledged the difficulties in attempting an international exchange mega-deal but said the Refinitiv acquisition was different. “Cross-border exchange transactions are pretty challenging. That can be for political or industry reasons. This is not a cross-border exchange transaction.” …