LONDON (Reuters) - Nasdaq OMX (>> NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.), the transatlantic exchange, is to launch a European futures exchange early next year in a direct challenge to rivals NYSE Euronext (>> NYSE Euronext) and Deutsche Boerse (>> Deutsche Boerse AG).

The group said on Thursday it would set up NLX, a London trading venue offering listed derivatives contracts and backed by European clearing house LCH.Clearnet.

"The new market will be a single platform for both short-term interest rate and long-term interest rate euro- and sterling-based listed derivative products," said Charlotte Crosswell, the Chief Executive of NLX.

The group runs exchanges in the United States and northern Europe but NLX marks a new direction that puts it on a collision course with Europe's dominant futures exchanges NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Boerse.

NYSE Euronext, which operates the London-based Liffe market, and Deutsche Boerse, which runs Frankfurt's Eurex, have more than 90 percent of the trading activity in some European listed futures.

Competition in European futures has been restricted because of complex technical requirements to do with clearing and index licensing but Nasdaq feels the various regulatory reforms set to shake up derivatives trading will help new entrants in future.

The European Commission plans, with Mifid II and the European Market Infrastructure Regulation, to open up European futures trading to competition by forcing the incumbents to give up their carefully guarded indexes and clearing houses.

"This puts us in a prime position to capitalize on market structure changes in this space, partly driven by Dodd-Frank, EMIR and Mifid II and Basel III," said Crosswell.

Analysts sounded a note of skepticism, however, pointing out that derivatives trading has historically tended not to shift between rival suppliers.

"While Nasdaq's approach brings several value-add features, we believe the new venture will face an uphill battle nonetheless, as derivatives liquidity has proven to be quite sticky," said Alex Kramm, an analyst at UBS.

The Nasdaq plan emerged just hours after ICAP (>> ICAP plc), the world's largest derivatives broker, completed the takeover of loss-making British exchange PLUS (>> PLUS Markets Group PLC), paving the way for its push into European futures trading.

(Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)

By Luke Jeffs