Nasdaq nods to fears of US regulatory creep

Now Nasdaq has put a formal bid for the London Stock Exchange on the table, its executives are falling over each other to reassure sceptical British patriots that any regulatory creep will be stopped at the US border. So, to the Balls Clause (legislation proposed by Ed Balls to ring-fence the UK’s light-touch regulatory oversight of exchanges) and the Paulson Proposal (the US Treasury secretary’s call this week for more principles-based regulation) we can now add the Greifeld Guarantee. This last is the superstructure Robert Greifeld, Nasdaq’s chief executive, would write into the LSE’s articles after a successful takeover. It would create a new London Oversight Committee (LOC) with a veto over any change that transfers more than 20 per cent of the LSE’s business or administration out of London, or tinkers with the light listing standards of Aim, the junior market.