Dutch finance minister Gerrit Zalm is ‘minded’ to approve the merger between the European bourse Euronext and the New York Stock exchange.

In a letter to Euronext, Zalm said: ‘On the information currently available to me, I would like to inform you that I am minded to grant the request declarations of no-objections.’
Zalm said he was still waiting for information about the organisation of the local markets. For example there should be no ‘spillover’ of US rules and regulations into the European stock exchange, he said.
A number of Dutch companies and institutional investors are concerned that Dutch firms may end up subject to tougher US accounting rules.