If there were a chutzpah index, the bold, four-month-old merger of Dutch, Belgian and French stock and derivative exchanges, would be breaking records. Euronext, the merged group of exchanges, already claims to be the largest equity market in the eurozone, as well as the leading market in Europe for equity and index derivatives and a catalyst for consolidation among the continent's exchanges.

The uninitiated might be forgiven for thinking that the battle for marketplace supremacy had been won, rather than just entering its fiercest phase.