The Luxembourger Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) has approved the merger of Deutsche Börse and NYSE Euronext. This represents an important supervisory milestone for the merger at Deutsche Börse Group’s important Luxembourg location.

Good news for Jean Guill, Director of CSSF and all the Luxembourgish market. Photo © ITnation

The CSSF examination of the matter focuses on shareholder control and is comparable to the examination by the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht – BaFin), which has already been successful concluded, and to that of the shareholder control procedure by the stock exchange regulators. It deals with the admissibility of the acquisition of important shareholdings in Clearstream companies within Deutsche Börse Group in Luxembourg by the parent company of the new group (Holdco) domiciled in the Netherlands. These include Clearstream International S.A. and Clearstream Services S.A., as well as Clearstream Banking S.A. as an international settlement institution. CSSF’s examination involved assessing the reliability of the Dutch Holdco and its financial solidity, as did BaFin’s. CSSF’s overall conclusion was that there are no banking supervisory reasons against the merger in Luxembourg either.

The transaction is subject to further closing conditions, such as approval by the responsible EU competition authorities and the responsible stock exchange supervisory authorities.