The combination of the CME Group with the New York Mercantile Exchange, now complete, makes a behemoth in futures trading even bigger but does little to clarify how the exchange sector will develop in the coming years.

Michael Henry, a senior executive in Accenture’s global Capital Markets practice, said: “The acquisition itself was fairly straightforward. CME buys a US-based derivatives exchange with a similar product set and technology platform. But the broader context is more complex and occurs within an ongoing battle for market share between virtually all of the world’s largest exchanges.”