LSE chief Rolet acknowledges he has a problem with retail liquidity

If you want something done, it’s best to do it yourself. Such advice could be offered to Xavier Rolet today after the London Stock Exchange’s chief executive bemoaned the lack of retail participation in the UK’s capital markets.

‘One of the distinguishing features of the UK market, if you compare it to our European neighbors and frankly also our neighbors to the west in the United States, is the relative underrepresentation of private, retail investors,’ he told delegates at the UK IR Society’s annual conference.

‘It is much more difficult for them in terms of costs, in terms of availability of electronic broking venues. We believe this is one of the reasons why liquidity in the UK markets is significantly underdeveloped.’

To be fair to Rolet, he did bring in a retail trading platform for bonds in February this year, a point he made during his speech.

But on the question of retail equity investment, all Rolet had to say was: ‘We believe there is still much more to do in terms of providing new tools, particularly electronic, transparent, liquid and neutral tools.

‘We’ve started to take action, and I expect over the coming months we will introduce new initiatives to make access to equity markets easier for retail investors.’

Let’s hope some of these initiatives take a more concrete form soon. If Rolet can’t offer a solution, who will?

Tim Human
IR magazine

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