Julia Hoggett, CEO @ LSEG plc: The Myths and the Reality of The London Stock Exchange
Julia Hoggett (guest), Harry Stebbings (host)
In this episode of The Twenty Minute VC, featuring Julia Hoggett and Harry Stebbings, Julia Hoggett, CEO @ LSEG plc: The Myths and the Reality of The London Stock Exchange explores julia Hoggett dismantles London Stock Exchange myths and rebuilding strategy Julia Hoggett, CEO of the London Stock Exchange, argues that the UK has world‑class ingredients for growth—capital, universities, and entrepreneurs—but has structurally disconnected its society and pension system from its own capital markets.
Julia Hoggett dismantles London Stock Exchange myths and rebuilding strategy
Julia Hoggett, CEO of the London Stock Exchange, argues that the UK has world‑class ingredients for growth—capital, universities, and entrepreneurs—but has structurally disconnected its society and pension system from its own capital markets.
She explains how regulation, pension reform, and tax policy (notably stamp duty and cost‑obsessed rules) have unintentionally de‑risked the system, starved UK equities of domestic capital, and entrenched a mistaken belief that the US is always a better listing venue.
Hoggett outlines a five‑part UK reform agenda to modernize listing rules, revive research coverage, consolidate and re‑risk pension funds, and shift regulation toward outcomes and net returns rather than box‑ticking and cost.
Throughout, she pushes back on myths about inferior UK liquidity and valuations, makes the case for reversing perverse incentives like stamp duty, and calls for a cultural reset where Britain celebrates entrepreneurship and “backs itself” again.
Key Takeaways
Reconnect pensions and retail savers with UK growth companies.
Shift UK pension schemes from fragmented, de‑risked, cost‑capped structures toward larger, sophisticated funds that can invest in portfolios of private and public growth assets, ensuring citizens benefit from domestic innovation and value creation.
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Regulation should be outcomes‑based, not process‑obsessed.
Regulators and policymakers must define clear goals—like financially literate, enfranchised retail investors and robust domestic risk capital—and then continually test whether rules are achieving those outcomes rather than just enforcing compliance with processes.
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Rethink ‘cheap is good’ in financial services and pensions.
Regulating pensions and asset management primarily on fee levels has suppressed investment in research, private markets, and stock‑picking; shifting to a net‑return and value‑for‑money lens will justify paying for higher‑skill management that earns better long‑term returns.
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Challenge myths about US listings automatically being superior.
Data cited by Hoggett show many UK firms that listed in the US underperforming or delisting, lower free‑float turnover in major US indices than in the FTSE 100, and similar like‑for‑like valuations—implying founders should compare concrete indexation, liquidity, and costs, not just narrative.
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Phase out stamp duty by pairing reform with new capital inflows.
Because stamp duty on UK shares is both distortionary and fiscally important, Hoggett suggests first boosting domestic equity flows (e. ...
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Use pension reform and compacts to force a ‘risk‑on’ shift.
Initiatives like the Mansion House Compact (5% of DC assets into private markets by 2030) plus consolidation into large funds can push UK pensions toward the Canadian/Australian model, where paying for origination and alternatives is normal and rewarded through superior compounded returns.
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Culture and narrative are strategic economic levers, not soft extras.
Britain’s tendency toward public cynicism, risk‑aversion, and under‑celebration of founders undermines its own ecosystem; consciously promoting optimism, success stories, and pride in domestic capital markets can influence where talent lists, builds, and stays.
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Notable Quotes
“We’ve disconnected society from our capital markets.”
— Julia Hoggett
“We basically created a world where cheap was good for financial services… that’s not the right way to think about it.”
— Julia Hoggett
“The perception and the reality are not the same thing when it comes to listing in the US versus the UK.”
— Julia Hoggett
“Stamp duty is a perversity in the UK. We charge people to invest in UK stocks but we don’t charge them to invest in US or European stocks.”
— Julia Hoggett
“If you don’t like the system, change the system.”
— Julia Hoggett
Questions Answered in This Episode
If the data show UK liquidity and valuations are competitive, what specifically keeps high‑growth tech founders so fixated on US listings?
Julia Hoggett, CEO of the London Stock Exchange, argues that the UK has world‑class ingredients for growth—capital, universities, and entrepreneurs—but has structurally disconnected its society and pension system from its own capital markets.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
How far can pension consolidation and regulatory tweaks really shift UK funds toward a Canadian‑style appetite for private and growth assets?
She explains how regulation, pension reform, and tax policy (notably stamp duty and cost‑obsessed rules) have unintentionally de‑risked the system, starved UK equities of domestic capital, and entrenched a mistaken belief that the US is always a better listing venue.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
What are the most politically viable options to replace the £3–4 billion raised by stamp duty so it can be meaningfully reduced or removed?
Hoggett outlines a five‑part UK reform agenda to modernize listing rules, revive research coverage, consolidate and re‑risk pension funds, and shift regulation toward outcomes and net returns rather than box‑ticking and cost.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
How can UK regulators practically implement outcomes‑based oversight without simply creating a new layer of vague, harder‑to‑measure rules?
Throughout, she pushes back on myths about inferior UK liquidity and valuations, makes the case for reversing perverse incentives like stamp duty, and calls for a cultural reset where Britain celebrates entrepreneurship and “backs itself” again.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
What concrete steps could UK business, media, and government take in the next five years to change the national narrative from cynical to genuinely growth‑oriented?
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Transcript Preview
We've disconnected society from our capital markets. Stamp duty is a perversity in the UK, we charge people to invest in UK stocks, but we don't charge them to invest in US stocks or European stocks. We've basically, uh, created a world where cheap was good, you know, for financial services. In the last 10 years, only 20 UK companies have listed in the US that have raised over $100 million. Of those, nine have already de-listed, only four are trading up, and the rest are trading down by over 80%.
Ready to go? Julia, I'm very excited for this. Thank you so much for having us in the office today.
Oh, it's our pleasure. Welcome to a very sunny, very warm, very unusual London day. (laughs)
It is, and it's a beautiful view. I would love to start with a little bit of context. So, how did you come to be CEO of the London Stock Exchange? And take me through the moment when you accepted and took on the role.
Oh, my word. Um, by accident is the, is the honest answer to the question. So I always describe my career as a series of answering exam questions. So I'm actually a sociologist who specialized in sub-Saharan East Africa by training. Went into the City to find out how Malawi operated in the global economy, and I've answered a series of exam questions ever since. And in the summer of 2020, Apple was worth more than the FTSE 100 for the first time. I was then at the FCA as Director of Market Oversight, and that evening, I literally wrote down everything I thought that I could try and influence to change it so that that didn't happen again. The next day, the phone rang, and it was a headhunter, and her first question was, "Why haven't you applied for the LSE job?" So I was like, "Well, I know the exam question I want to answer. Um, should I stay at the FCA where I've got a certain amount of influence over how our markets function, um, or should I explore coming to the LSE?" And the rest is history.
What did you write down as the exam answer?
I always jokingly say that the list was too short in hindsight.
Can I ask, what you wanted to change when you came in-
Mm-hmm.
... is that very different to what you see now as the core objectives you still need to change, or have they stayed the same?
The theme has stayed very similar. My theory was, the UK has all the raw ingredients, you know? So we have world-leading universities, we have some of remarkable entrepreneurship going on already and, and startup culture in this country. Um, we create more unicorns than anywhere outside the US and China, and we're a world-leading capital market by any measure. Um, we don't think of ourselves that way and we don't talk about ourselves that way as a nation, but actually we have all of those raw ingredients. The City has done a very good job over the last 30 years of driving the UK's place as a global financial center. It's done a less good job of driving the UK domestic economy.
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