Competition among derivatives trading venues and clearing houses in Europe may never materialise, even if ongoing regulatory efforts to open up the market are successful, according to new research from Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

A new report from the investment bank laying out four key themes for 2014, says the regulatory push to encourage competition in listed derivatives contained in the second version of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive is unlikely to have the same effect as the first version of the directive had for equities.