London Stock Exchange benefits from new trading platform

LSE has major integration challenges ahead

Profit at the London Stock Exchange (LSE) increased by 59 per cent with the trading services division delivering “excellent results” due to the upgrade of its trading platform TradElect in 2007.

LSE posted full year net profit of £174m, up from the £110m reported in the previous year. Revenue increased by 56 per cent, to £546.4m.

The bourse, which completed the takeover of Italy's Borsa Italiana last October, upgraded its transaction system also last year to speed up transaction times and double trading capacity.

"In particular, trading services delivered an exceptional performance, following the successful launch of the Exchange's new trading platform, as trading volumes increased by more than 80 per cent during the year,” said LSE’s chief executive Clara Furse.

The integration work with Borsa includes the migration of equities trading from the Italian exchange onto the London systems by September 2008.

“Migrating Italian cash equities to TradElect is the most challenging part, particularly in a tight timeframe,” LSE chief technology officer Robin Paine told Computing last year.

Other projects linked to the merger include network conversion, enterprise systems integration, derivatives and bonds integration, corporate data warehouses and web sites.