Whither Exchanges

Before the craze of demutualization, which pumped a lot of capital into exchanges for needed infrastructure improvements, everyone agreed that they were industry utilities. Now with the leading exchange operators growing their technology and service arms, it looks like they have become the agency brokers with some of the largest open crossing networks around.

Of course, regulators will make sure that banks act as banks and exchanges act like exchanges, but the line appears to be blurring. It