Two of Europe's top exchanges today confirmed they plan to distance themselves from their main clearing houses, bowing to pressure from the European Union to split the role of trading from that of clearing and settlement and drive down fees for users.

As first reported in Financial News in October 2005, Euronext said today it has reached an agreement with LCH.Clearnet to sell back 16.6% of convertible shares and 19.9% of ordinary shares, worth a total of €460m ($600m).