Anything seen as strengthening the financial centres of London or Frankfurt is unlikely to go down well in Paris. However, a tie-up between the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Börse could see France celebrating as well.

While the LSE falling into the clutches of a US exchange might raise a collective cheer in Paris, a merger of the UK exchange group with Deutsche Börse would be a different prospect entirely, and the talks between the pair over a $28 billion merger will have no doubt raised concerns among France's capital markets community.