LSE chief pushes for big screen outside HQ to champion market successes

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The London Stock Exchange wants to erect a screen outside its Square Mile headquarters to showcase the market’s success stories and combat pessimism over its future.

Julia Hoggett, LSE chief executive, said on Thursday she was “campaigning” to be allowed to put a screen on the front of the building, located at Paternoster Square just yards from St Paul’s Cathedral.

The plan would be likely to face scrutiny from planning officials at the City of London Corporation. Getting clearance for the idea was “not straightforward”, Hoggett said. 

Speaking to City advisers and executives at an event hosted in London by the Quoted Companies Alliance, Hoggett said she wanted to “celebrate” the successes of London-listed companies and make sure these were “visible on the outside”.

The stock exchange is trying to arrest the gloom prompted by a decline in the number of companies listing in the UK capital and competition from rival financial centres.

“We can confirm that City planning officers are in pre-application discussions with the London Stock Exchange regarding a refurbishment and extension scheme for the site,” said a spokesperson for the City of London.

A screen would be the latest effort to boost the narrative around the stock exchange. New York’s Times Square carries a ticker tape with the latest share prices. 

Hoggett’s comments came as online fashion chain Shein, valued at $66bn in its last funding round, seeks to list on the LSE.

But its ambition has already drawn concern from some UK fund managers over the group’s alleged treatment of workers. Founded in China, Shein said it had zero tolerance for forced labour.

Latham & Watkins lawyer Mark Austin, who has been part of efforts to overhaul City rules to make the UK a more attractive listing venue, told the same event that people working in the financial sector had “a responsibility now to talk positively” about the changes. 

“It’s very important now that we create that positive narrative because I’ve learned that talking negatively creates a negative perception which creates negative reality, which is often unfair and unfounded,” he said. “Happily, the opposite is also true: if you talk positively, you create a positive reality.”

Hoggett, who previously worked at the Financial Conduct Authority, has been among the executives pushing for the UK to allow more risk-taking in an effort to boost economic activity. 

But she said that the level of risk allowed in the financial system was a political decision.

The government has moved in recent months to allow more risk-taking. Hoggett warned that it was important that politicians and the public must not immediately blame the regulators whenever a company hit problems.

“They’re in a difficult situation . . . that if anything goes wrong they’re called in front of the TSC [Treasury select committee],” she said, referring to a high-profile parliamentary group that scrutinises financial watchdogs.