London bourse sees Philippine office as crucial to operations

MANILA, Philippines — The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) is hitching a ride on the fast-growing global demand for data as part of its diversification while recognizing the important role of Filipino employees in its global operations.

LSEG, operator of the London bourse, acquired data company Refinitive in 2021. Refinitiv is an American-British global provider of financial market data and infrastructure.

The acquisition has given LSEG three major business avenues: data and analytics, capital markets and post-trade services, LSEG CEO David Schwimmer told The STAR in an interview during his recent visit to Manila.

“We serve almost every major bank in the world, most major asset managers in the world, lots of governments, lots of central banks, lots of companies and lots of market participants,” he said.

Schwimmer said as a bigger and diversified company, LSEG is recognizing the crucial role of its Philippine office.

Last June, LSEG opened its Manila-based operation center in Taguig, two years after implementing a work-from-home setup among its employees.

“The Philippines is one of our largest locations in terms of people. We have more than 2,000 people here,” he said, noting that workers in the Manila office are critical participants for many of LSEG’s functions.

He said LSEG’s Philippine office is very well integrated into the global office and has a very strong pool of talent.

“A big part of what we are doing on a global basis is investing more in our capabilities such as product development, new systems and investing in more efficient processes. It is a business enabled by people and there’s great talent in this market,” Schwimmer said.

“We’re very happy with the team here,” he added.

The Philippine office is vital as LSEG recognizes the need to adapt to the changing needs of customers.

“We want to make sure we’re up to speed,” he said.

LSEG is a leading global financial markets infrastructure and data provider that operates connected businesses to serve customers across the entire financial markets value chain.

With capabilities in data, indexes and analytics, capital formation, trade execution, clearing and risk management, it operates at the heart of the world’s financial ecosystem and enables the sustainable growth and stability of its customers and their communities.

Schwimmer said during the pandemic, access to data has become as important as access to an exchange, market liquidity or a clearing house.

“Many of our customers now want more flexibility on how they can interact with our data,” he said.

Aside from the Philippines, LSEG has a major presence throughout Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific and emerging markets.