LSE axing 120 in restructure
THE LONDON Stock Exchange Group (LSE) is negotiating the redundancy of up to 120 staff, with at least 60 London-based employees to be affected, as the new chief executive Xavier Rolet acts on his promise to make the group operate more cost effectively.
The cuts, which began on Wednesday, will mostly involve marketing and customer liaison staff, the majority of which will come from the LSE’s secondary market operations.
Primary markets staff, who are involved in cultivating relationships with prospective client firms, are expected to be hit less hard, according to sources close to the company.
Positions will also be lost from the group’s Milan and Rome operations, which it has owned since the acquisition of Borsa Italiana in 2007.
“With a new chief executive at the helm, LSE has been reviewing its operational structure and has identified changes to how it is organised,” said an LSE spokesman.
“These changes will flatten the group’s structure and improve the speed of decision making. Inevitably, they will lead to job losses as well as new opportunities for some staff.”
Rolet took up the reins from Dame Clara Furse – who stepped down after over eight years – on May this year.
He quickly signalled his intent to make the group more cost-effective as he vowed to fight newcomers hoping to take market share from the 200-year old institution. Referring to new platforms such as Chi-X and Turquoise, Rolet said he didn’t intend to see “our competition grabbing a bigger share of the market”.
He recently reorganised the management structure to create a new capital markets business unit under Raffaele Jerusalmi, who previously worked at Borsa Italiana.