CHICAGO (Reuters) – NYSE Euronext and Germany’s Deutsche Boerse AG will become the market leader of the ultra-competitive U.S. options trading industry once their merger is complete, data from clearinghouse OCC showed on Monday.

Last month NYSE and Deutsche Boerse shareholders approved the transatlantic merger, which will bring together not only Europe’s two biggest derivatives exchanges but also three mid-ranking U.S. options marketplaces.

The exchanges — Deutsche Boerse’s International Securities Exchange and NYSE’s Amex and NYSE Arca venues — together handled 40.3 percent of all U.S. stock- and stock-index options trades last month, according to figures on the OCC website.

Bragging rights for the No. 1 spot have in recent months gone to either CBOE Holdings Inc, which owns the oldest U.S. options exchange, or Nasdaq OMX Group, which operates two venues, PHLX and NOM.

CBOE, which also owns the electronic C2 market, handled 26.2 percent of all options contracts traded in July; Nasdaq handled 25.9 percent.

Traders say they expect NYSE and Deutsche Boerse to lose some of their collective volume once they complete the merger, as market participants spread their business among competitors.

But the large lead the three exchanges have over their nearest rivals suggests they will keep their collective top spot for some time to come, analysts have said.

The merger still needs the approval of regulators, which in Europe may require a review lasting through the end of the year.

Deutsche Boerse is buying NYSE Euronext for about $9 billion.

(Reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The top securities regulator pledged a rigorous review of potentially outdated private securities trading rules, but stopped short of endorsing changes being advocated by Republican lawmakers.

At a congressional hearing on Tuesday, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro was pressed to make regulatory changes to help small and medium-sized companies more easily raise capital without going public.

In January, Goldman Sachs decided to limit Facebook offerings to foreign investors after intense media coverage spooked the bank into fears it could be accused of violating rules on soliciting investors.

Also at issue was the use of a special purpose vehicle by Goldman to circumvent a 500-shareholders-of-record rule which requires a private company to begin public financial reporting. The rule counts all shareholders individually, but the vehicle used by Goldman aggregated shareholders into one.

“We are absolutely committed to looking at whether this threshold makes any sense,” Schapiro told the House Oversight Committee hearing, adding that the agency is conducting an economic analysis.

Republicans want the SEC to raise the 500 shareholder threshold, or else change the rule so that more sophisticated investors who understand the markets will not count toward the total. They say the cap is too low and forces companies to raise capital only with large sophisticated investors and harms the ability of smaller investors to get a piece of the action. They also fear it creates costly logistical challenges for companies as they seek to manage the shareholder total so they do not hit the 500 mark.

“These folks are very sophisticated,” said Representative Patrick McHenry. “For heaven’s sake, if you look at these substantial institutional players, they’ve got better research and information than the SEC and the government,” he said.

Schapiro sought to strike a balance between lowering regulatory barriers for companies and protecting investors from fraud, telling McHenry that sophisticated investors “are no less deserving of the protections of the securities laws.”

She and SEC Corporation Finance Division Director Meredith Cross assured lawmakers the SEC is exploring whether to exempt certain investors from the 500 shareholder rule as part of the SEC’s broader review into private securities trading. They also said they are exploring if the 500 number is the right one.

In addition, Cross said the SEC is thinking about soliciting input from the public about potential changes to general solicitation rules.

Some Democrats on the panel expressed skepticism about overhauling rules designed to protect investors.

“I fully support helping U.S. firms access additional capital, but I also believe this must be done without sacrificing critical protections,” said the Elijah Cummings, the committee’s top Democrat.

(Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Tim Dobbyn)