Reform of the London Stock Exchange

During the early 1980s a number of irresistible pressures combined to force radical change on the London Stock Exchange. These embraced:

competitive threats, in the shape of international and, to a lesser degree, domestic securities business that was by-passing the Exchange;

the increased bargaining muscle of institutional investors;

the agreement reached between the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and the Chairman of the Stock Exchange following removal of the Exchange’s rule book from an Office of Fair Trading inquiry; and

advances in information technology.