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The Twenty Minute VC

Julia Hoggett, CEO @ LSEG plc: The Myths and the Reality of The London Stock Exchange

Dame Julia Hoggett is the CEO of the London Stock Exchange plc. Julia previously worked at the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority as Director of Market Oversight and Head of Wholesale Banking Supervision.

Julia HoggettguestHarry Stebbingshost

Mar 28, 202548mWatch on YouTube ↗

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CHAPTERS

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Chapter summaries

Capital markets disconnect: stamp duty, ‘cheap is good’ thinking, and the US-listing myth
Julia opens with a blunt diagnosis: UK policy and market structure have disconnected society from capital markets, including the oddity of taxing UK share purchases via stamp duty. She also challenges the narrative that UK companies automatically do better by listing in the US, citing de-listings and poor post-IPO performance.
- •Stamp duty uniquely penalizes investment in UK stocks versus US/Europe
- •‘Cheap is good’ mindset has degraded value-adding financial services
- •Only a small number of UK companies have raised $100m+ via US listings; many underperformed
- •Media narratives and incentives (fees) can skew perceptions
- •Framing the problem as societal participation in capital markets
How Julia became CEO: from sociology to the ‘exam question’ of UK competitiveness
Julia recounts an unconventional path from sociology into the City, then the FCA, and ultimately the LSE CEO role triggered by a moment of reflection in 2020. She describes leadership as choosing the next “exam question” worth answering—how to stop the UK’s market relevance from eroding.
- •Career framed as repeatedly answering new “exam questions”
- •Motivation sparked when Apple’s value eclipsed the FTSE 100
- •Headhunter call prompted the jump from FCA to LSE
- •Early objectives remain similar: unlock UK’s latent strengths
- •Role acceptance tied to desire to influence systemic change
Why financial services boomed while the domestic economy lagged
Julia argues the City’s global success needn’t conflict with domestic economic growth, but the UK let those priorities drift apart. She points to structural factors—EU single market orientation and pension investment shifts—that weakened domestic risk-capital formation.
- •UK has ‘raw ingredients’: universities, startups, global capital markets
- •The City optimized for global financial center status more than UK growth
- •Serving the EU single market encouraged domestic disconnection
- •Domestic growth and global leadership can be mutually reinforcing
- •Reconnecting capital markets to national prosperity is the core goal
How society got disconnected: retail regulation and the pensions de-risking spiral
She explains two major disconnections: retail investors were ‘protected’ into disengagement, while pension reforms pushed funds away from risk assets. The result was less domestic equity investment, lower growth dynamism, and reduced participation in the upside of UK company success.
- •Retail: higher ‘walls’ reduced access to advice and regulated markets
- •Crypto offers an easier user journey than mainstream investing
- •Goal: citizens should have a stake in companies funding jobs and public services
- •Pension changes reduced national appetite for risk assets
- •Trend contributes to weaker post-GFC growth and market vibrancy
Pension reform fallout: DB accounting changes, scheme closures, and lost risk capital
Julia traces a key turning point to post-scandal reforms: DB pensions moved onto corporate balance sheets with quarterly volatility flowing through P&L. Firms then closed and de-risked schemes, shrinking UK equity demand and the economy’s long-term risk-taking capacity.
- •Mirror pension scandal catalyzed major reforms
- •DB liabilities brought onto balance sheets; volatility hit earnings
- •Companies shut DB schemes and shifted assets toward bonds/fixed income
- •DB schemes can mutualize long-term risk for national investment
- •UK can ‘undo’ these choices because they were policy-driven
Not deregulation—outcomes-based regulation and ‘what are we regulating for?’
She rejects ‘deregulation’ as the wrong framing, advocating regulation designed around measurable outcomes rather than rule-following. The objective is financially literate, enfranchised investors and a pension system that supports domestic risk capital, monitored over time.
- •Focus on intended outcomes rather than process compliance
- •Regulation can become policy worship without outcome verification
- •If objectives were tracked, pension impacts would have been caught earlier
- •Desired end-state: higher savings, broader participation, reinvestment in UK economy
- •Need metrics for domestic risk-capital investment, not just compliance
The UK reform agenda ‘five fingers on a glove’: listings, research, pensions/retail, and more
Julia lays out a coordinated reform program: modern listing rules, improve research incentives, and fix pension/retail structures so capital can flow to growth companies. She argues you need the whole ‘hand’—isolated fixes won’t rebuild the ecosystem.
- •Listing rules updated after decades; flexibility now globally competitive
- •Sell-side research incentives restored by reversing MiFID-style unbundling constraints
- •Pensions: DB de-risking and fragmented DC schemes are core blockers
- •DC regulated on cost rather than net return; scale and sophistication are missing
- •Reforms aim to enable public markets to fund the next stage of scaling companies
Copying Canada/Australia: consolidation, value-for-money (net returns), and Pisces crossover markets
She explains why UK pensions can’t easily invest like CPPIB or Ontario Teachers’ today: insufficient scale, cost caps, and advice structures. The solution is consolidation, shifting fiduciary focus to net returns, and creating mechanisms (like Pisces) to access private-company portfolios.
- •UK DC schemes are too small and fragmented for private investing at scale
- •Cost-focused regulation created ‘cheap is good’ incentives
- •Mansion House Compact: large schemes targeting 5% private assets by 2030
- •Pisces positioned as a bridge/crossover market for private-to-public capital
- •Consolidation enables portfolio approaches suited to private-company risk
Will Revolut/Monzo list in London? Separating perception from reality on US listings
Julia challenges the ‘America all day’ storyline with data on UK companies that listed in the US and then de-listed or collapsed in value. She argues the US market is fantastic for the mega-caps but can be unforgiving for mid-sized companies that lack index inclusion and visibility.
- •Data: few UK $100m+ US listings; many de-listed or traded down heavily
- •US works best for ‘Mag 7’-style giants; smaller names can get ignored
- •Indexation dominates US flows; non-index names face headline-driven volatility
- •Media narratives and higher US banking fees can bias advice
- •London can be competitive on liquidity and investor access
Myth-busting London liquidity, data quality issues, and why stamp duty distorts outcomes
She argues liquidity comparisons are often misunderstood: free-float turnover in London can exceed US benchmarks, and some public data sources are wrong. However, she agrees stamp duty is a real disadvantage and a peculiar tax that discourages domestic equity investment.
- •Free-float adjusted turnover in London claimed higher than S&P/Nasdaq
- •Absolute volume differs due to mega-cap scale, but percentage turnover matters
- •Some finance portals misreport UK liquidity materially
- •Stamp duty is ‘perverse’: taxes UK share purchases but not foreign ones
- •Treasury dependency on stamp duty revenue complicates reform
Are UK valuations structurally lower than the US? Growth rate vs ‘UK discount’
On valuation discounts, Julia says pairwise analyses show outcomes depend more on fundamentals than venue. She acknowledges specific cases are complex, but argues the right company with the right story can achieve strong multiples in London with lower costs and faster index inclusion.
- •Like-for-like analyses show mixed results; many firms trade similarly across venues
- •Exposure to US growth can be rewarded in UK markets too
- •Deliveroo example: valuation influenced by company-specific challenges
- •London can offer lower fees, comparable investors, and faster index inclusion
- •ADR/dual access can complement London primary listings
Building the UK ‘risk-capital flywheel’: domestic ownership, culture, and celebrating founders
Julia reframes listing decisions as national economic plumbing: domestic investors should share in upside from UK-born innovation. She emphasizes incentives (tax, pensions) and culture—optimism, celebration of entrepreneurship, and stopping the habit of talking the UK down.
- •Arm example: minimal early UK investor ownership highlights the cost of indifference
- •A vibrant market links R&D, jobs, dividends, pensions, and tax revenues
- •Magic-wand agenda: reinstate incentives to invest domestically
- •Cultural shift: celebrate founder risk-taking and ambition
- •UK needs a more optimistic narrative akin to US self-belief
A practical path to reducing stamp duty: tapering, ISA reform, and replacing Treasury revenue
Julia outlines a politically feasible strategy: increase flows into UK equities first (via incentives and ISA design), then taper stamp duty—especially for smaller retail tickets. She stresses reform must respect fiscal constraints and offer replacement revenue mechanisms.
- •Immediate abolition is unrealistic due to £3–4bn annual revenue reliance
- •Boost domestic equity flows to offset revenue impact
- •Revisit incentives like dividend tax credits; reconsider 100% cash ISAs balance
- •Start tapering on retail and smaller tickets to remove participation friction
- •Policy must work within OBR/fiscal rules and political constraints
Quickfire reflections: system-change mindset, ESG nuance, algorithms, and LSE’s 2035 vision
In rapid-fire Q&A, Julia shares her belief that systems are changeable and that leadership is about iterating toward the right answer. She discusses ESG as legitimate but often over-prescribed, worries about society’s loss of nuance under algorithmic incentives, and ends with a vision of LSE as the default home for scaled UK champions backed by domestic capital.
- •Core belief: any problem is fixable—change the system
- •Leadership reality: constant learning; sleep and time constraints are real
- •Advice to policymakers: prioritize pension reform to ‘turn the taps on’
- •ESG: climate risk matters, but rigid rules can create perverse outcomes
- •2035 ambition: LSE as default listing venue enabled by a domestic capital continuum

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