German e-broker Direkt Anlage Bank (DAB) is set to buy France's Self Trade in anticipation of further consolidation in the industry.

The two companies believe they are a perfect fit in terms of services and products. Such a merger would also go a long way toward creating a pan-European e-broker. Both firms are in third place in their domestic markets in terms of the number of accounts and DAB is the leader in Germany in terms of value of customer assets.