London Stock Exchange bets on IT for growth

IT is high up in the LSE growth plans

London Stock Exchange’s (LSE's) outgoing chief executive has praised the group’s IT team for having supported a successful integration with Borsa Italiana and achieving significant cost efficiencies over the last 12 months.

Dame Clara Furse said that improvements in technology were instrumental to the £32m in savings generated over the period – up by 60 per cent from the original plan – and in supporting the merger with the Italian bourse.

“I am very grateful to our IT team for developing the several assets that Borsa brings to our group,” said Furse when delivering her final full-year results presentation today.

Asked whether the collapse of LSE’s systems last year compromised confidence in the group’s IT systems, Furse said that was a “bad day”, caused by a number of incidents happening simultaneously.

“Of course, we would like to be 100 per cent perfect, but when you are improving system functionality while adding new members all the time, there is obviously some risk involved,” she said.

The September software glitch halted trading at the LSE for almost seven hours.

Furse will step down today, when former Lehman Brothers banker Xavier Rolet will take over as the new chief executive.

Rolet admitted the competition battle from cheaper rivals such as Chi-X, Turquoise and Bats will be fierce, but said investment in technology will help LSE keep a step ahead of the competition.

“Competition is not a new phenomenon, but we have firm foundations for growth and are ready to capitalise on the market changes. We are planning for the next step change for technology and looking to the future,” said Rolet.

"We don't intend to see our competitors grabbing a bigger share of the market, " he said.

The new chief executive said IT will play a prominent role in exploring new opportunities and meet demand of customers for faster and cheaper ways to find liquidity.

"We're in a competitive environment. We will compete," he said.

LSE is particularly enthusiastic about this year’s launch of Baikal, a " dark-pool" pan-European trading venue, which is under development and is one of the group’s key upcoming IT milestones.

Net loss for the 12 months ended 31 March at the LSE was £338m compared with a profit of £168.3m a year ago. The bourse took an impairment charge of £484m related to the acquisition of Borsa Italiana.