Efforts by the European Commission to reduce the cost of clearing equity trades have been delayed by at least a month after market regulators blocked a plan to link London-based LCH.Clearnet and its Dutch rival EMCF, the two biggest clearing houses in Europe.

The UK's Financial Services Authority and its Dutch counterparts, the Authority for the Financial Markets and the Dutch Central Bank, raised objections last week to a planned link between LCH.Clearnet and Amsterdam-based EMCF amid concerns that the link might create excessive systemic risk.