Finance minister Gerrit Zalm has given his formal blessing to the merger of Euronext and the New York Stock Exchange. The minister said last year he would support the plan on certain conditions.

These included a guarantee that local responsibilities would be maintained and that US accounting rules would not apply to the Amsterdam stock exchange. Investors, French politicians and Liberal (VVD) MPs have been concerned that the tougher Sarbanes-Oxley rules could be applied to Amsterdam-listed firms.