Hong Kong exchange open to alliances, adds voice to merger

(Reuters) - The Hong Kong stock exchange said on Thursday it will consider international alliances after Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext announced plans to form the world's biggest trading powerhouse.

Deutsche and NYSE said they are in advanced talks to form a marketplace that would have annual trading volume exceeding $20 trillion, the latest in a flurry of mergers pointing to a shake-up of an industry under intense cost pressure from upstart electronic rivals.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd, the world's biggest exchange operator by market value, said on Thursday it is open to international alliances and partnerships, although the exchange added that it had not identified any opportunities.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/10/us-exchanges-idUSTRE7191GF20110210

I'm not a big fan of this kind of consolidation. It runs the risk of spreading economic contagion, and flies in the face of every lesson we learned from the collapse of 2008. It also speaks volumes about the amount of money now being made from these global gambling syndicates at the expense of everybody else on the earth.

Pisses me off actually.

Interesting.. Recently the TSX and the LSE have also announced merger plans.

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/features/Exchange+merger+worth+tweet/4256388/story.html

All of these mergers are about centralizing power.