Next year could finally lay the groundwork for a cheaper, fully competitive environment for the clearing of cash equity trades in Europe, with market participants looking ahead to changes that could drastically cut costs.

The transformation of the post-trade landscape in cash equities will be led by the merger of two of Europe's largest clearing houses - EMCF and EuroCCP - and new rules for trading and markets included in the second version of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive.