高层观点：专访纽交所CEO

In his first two months as chief executive of NYSE Euronext, Duncan Niederauer has traversed the globe, signed two merger agreements and watched as the share price of the exchange plunged 14 per cent on the day it reported record quarterly profits.

NYSE Euronext's share price fall suggests the market wants cost management to be his prime concern.

The former partner and co-head of the equity division at Goldman Sachs first joined the exchange as president and co-chief operating officer last April and in December replaced John Thain, now departed for the CEO slot at Merrill Lynch.

He quickly signalled his ambitions with this year's merger agreement with age-old rival, the American Stock Exchange.

Viewed as a techexpert, Mr Niederauer is adjusting to his role, meeting European regulators and ensuring NYSE's integration with Euronext proceeds efficiently while responding to competition in the domestic market.

In a video interview with FT.com, Mr Niederauer discusses exchange consolidation, the likelihood of recession and the regulation of derivatives. Edited highlights appear below.

Long or short?

Manhattan real estate? Short The euro? Long Clara Furse? Long Goldman Sachs? Long Oil? Short The French economy? Long Hillary Clinton? Neutral John McCain? Neutral Merrill Lynch? Long US interest rates? Short

John Thain's team - that you were a part of - did a great deal very quickly at the New York Stock Exchange. Has he left you anything to do? He left me plenty to do. John's tenure here was more about demutualising the exchange than [expanding] the global footprint through doing mergers and acquisitions. What remains to be done with the Euronext integration? Quite a bit. It only closed in April of 2007. So a lot of work has to be done on the technology platform integration.

The rest of what has to happen is getting the company to think like one firm. This is true in any merger that you do, whether it's two corporate cultures or two national cultures. The work has to be done to get everybody to believe that they're on the same team and then act like they're on the same team and then it's much easier to execute. Did you feel you needed to make an acquisition - for instance, Amex - early in your tenure to show that expansion was still the order of the day? I don't think so, because I've said pretty loudly we're going to be more focused on integration and running the business than acquisitions.

At the same time, in an industry that's consolidating like ours is, I'm not going to shy away from doing it either. I didn't feel I needed to prove myself to anybody in the first weeks. Are you worried about CME emerging as the driving force behind consolidation in the derivatives area? I'm not terribly worried. They have a different business model than we do. They don't seem to want to diversify into equities and options. The competitive landscape in futures is quite different. Their vertically integrated model is hard to quarrel with and they're a strong competitor. They've got a good business model and if the regulatory authorities are okay with it, I guess it's up to them to extend their model. You've suggested recently that the exchange might be used somehow by regulators to help monitor derivatives. How would that work? It is a very informal discussion so far. We were simply asked, in the wake of what we went through last summer, about what seemed to be the lack of transparency [in that] market.

The liquidity providers [could provide] more accessible quotes that were viewable to the public and at a minimum, if transactions are done, being responsible to report those transactions so that they are visible to the public at large. We stand prepared to play whatever role the industry wants us to play to do that.

Among the regulators and the government authorities, who do you see leading those discussions? It's very difficult to say. In the US it is sometimes not clear who's going to take the baton on particular issues. There are lots of choices. You could have the Treasury lead the charge on this. You could have the SEC lead the charge on this. You could even have the CFTC or another regulatory authority get involved, depending on what they want the end game to look like. It's too early to predict right now. We're in a hot political season. Is there a danger that, if there isn't a solution in which industry plays a big part, politicians will come in? In a political year like this that's going to be super-charged, those issues that politicians tend to grab on to are those that more clearly affect the retail investor. The question is how much do the politicians think that the knock-on effect of this liquidity crisis in the credit space was to affect the end homeowner down the chain?

If they feel that solving this problem would have prevented that problem, you'll find some of them take it on as an issue. If they believe that it was really just an institutional problem, I would have difficulty thinking it rises to their level of interest, but we'll see. From your vantage point you have a good perspective on what's happening with US companies. Do you think we're entering a recession or are in one already? This is a very interesting seat to sit in because you see heads of all different kinds of companies coming through here, some of whom are strictly US businesses, some of whom have quite a big global footprint. I would say there is no consistent response. There are as many that are doing well as are doing poorly right now.

Anuj Gangahar and Chrystia Freeland

在担任纽约-泛欧交易所(NYSE Euronext)首席执行官的头两个月，邓肯•尼德洛尔(Duncan Niederauer)的行程便横贯全球。在此期间，他签署了两份并购协议，并目睹到该证交所股价在发布创纪录季度利润的当天暴跌14%。

纽约-泛欧交易所股价的下跌，表明市场希望他把成本管理作为首要任务。

尼德洛尔曾担任高盛(Goldman Sachs)证券业务合伙人及联席主管。去年4月，他刚刚加入纽约-泛欧交易所时担任总裁兼联席首席运营官，并于12月份接替了约翰•塞恩(John Thain)的位置。目前塞恩已离职就任美林(Merrill Lynch)首席执行官。

尼德洛尔的勃勃雄心，很快便通过今年与宿敌美国证交所(American Stock Exchange)之间的并购协议得以体现。

人们将尼德洛尔视为技术专家，他本人也在适应自己的角色，会见欧洲的监管机构，确保纽交所(NYSE)与泛欧交易所(Euronext)的整合有效进行，与此同时，他还要应对来自国内市场的竞争。

在FT.com的视频采访中，尼德洛尔谈到了证交所整合、经济衰退的可能性以及衍生产品的监管问题。以下则是编辑过的采访要点：

看多还是看空？

曼哈顿房地产？看空。欧元？看多。高磊雅(Clara Furse)？看多。高盛？看多。石油？看空。法国经济？看多。希拉里•克林顿(Hillary Clinton)。中性。约翰•麦凯恩(John McCain)？中性。美林？看多。美国利率？看空。

你曾是约翰•塞恩团队中的一员，他的团队在很短的时间内为纽约证交所做了一笔大买卖。他有没有给你留下什么要做的事情？

他给我留下了许多要做的事情。约翰在任期之内所做的事情，更多的是围绕如何推动证交所的股份化(demutualization)，而不是通过并购来进行全球拓展。

在泛欧交易所的整合方面，还需要做些什么?

还有许多事要做。泛欧交易所在2007年4月才关闭。因此在技术平台的整合方面，还有许多工作要做。

接下来要做的事情，就是要让整个公司的心往一处想。在任何合并交易中，不管是两种公司文化，或是两种民族文化，你都要这样处理。必须让每个人都相信，他们属于同一个团队。这样他们才会表现得像同一个团队，与是执行起来就会容易得多。

你是否觉得有必要在任期之初通过一项收购——例如，收购美国交易所(Amex)——来表明扩张仍是当下的风尚呢？

我不这样认为。因为我已经明确表示过，我们将把更多的精力放在整合及业务运营上，而不是进行收购。

同时，对于像我们这样一个处于整合状态的行业，我也不会回避这种做法。我不认为自己有必要在上任的头几周内向任何人证明自己。

你是否担心芝加哥商品交易所(CME)会成为推动衍生产品领域整合的力量？

我不是特别担心。他们的业务模式与我们不同。他们似乎并不想进行多样化调整，从而进入证券和期权领域。未来的竞争格局有很大的不同。他们的垂直整合模式无可非议，是强劲的竞争对手。他们拥有一种良好的业务模式，如果监管当局认可这种模式，我想，是否扩大这一模式，完全取决于他们自己。

近来你曾暗示，监管机构或多或少曾利用证交所来帮助监控衍生产品。那又是怎么做到的呢？

到目前为止，这还是一种非常随意的讨论。在去年夏季我们经历了那些事情之后，只是有人问起我们有关（这一）市场缺乏透明度的问题。

流动性的提供者（能够提供）更多的公众可以看得见的报价情况。同时，如果达成了相关交易，流动性的提供者至少有责任进行公告，以便让广大的民众能够知情。我们已做好了准备，来扮演这个行业需要我们扮演的任何角色。

在监管者和政府部门当中，你认为是谁在主导这些讨论？

很难说。在美国，有时候说不清楚是谁在一些具体问题上说了算。这里会有很多选择。可能会是财政部(Treasury)主导。也可能是美国证交会(SEC)主导。甚至美国商品期货交易委员会(CFTC)或另外一家监管部门也有可能参与其中。这要看他们希望看到什么样的结果了。现在预言还为时尚早。

我们正处在一个政治问题炙手可热的时候。会不会存在这样一种危险：如果不能形成一种产业界占主导地位的解决方案，政客们就会介入？

在今年这样的政治年，这方面的压力会增大，政客们一般会抓住那些更能明显影响散户的议题。目前的问题是，在政客们的心目中，此次信贷领域流动性危机所带来的冲击，会对信贷链条终端的房主们产生多大的影响。

如果他们觉得解决这个问题就会避免那个问题的出现，你会发现，他们中的一些人会把它当成一个问题。如果他们认为，这实际上只是一个制度性问题，我觉得，这恐怕很难引起他们的兴趣。不过还是让我们拭目以待吧。

从你所处的优势地位，你对美国公司所发生的情况独具眼光。你认为我们是否正步入衰退，或者已经置身衰退之中了？

这的确是一个很有趣的职位，因为你能从这里看到各种不同类型公司的首脑，有些是完全意义上的美国公司，而有些则有着庞大的全球业务。我觉得，大家的反应并不一致。目前有许多公司做得不错，也有许多公司做得比较糟糕。