When a group of Europe’s seven largest investment banks announced plans last year to set up their own platform, dubbed Project Turquoise, to compete with exchanges, shares in the London Stock Exchange plummeted.

A year on, Turquoise, called Project Tortoise for its slow delivery, is still nowhere to be seen. It was only a few weeks ago that the group announced the appointment of a chief executive, Eli Lederman from Morgan Stanley, and choice of a technology platform Cinnober.