Nick Goodway: We need LSE boss Xavier Rolet to stay in Britain
It will be most unfortunate if, as a result of Deutsche Börse or Americans taking over the London Stock Exchange, we lost Xavier Rolet from Britain.
The chief executive of the LSE is one of very few crying in the wilderness against the de-equitisation of this country. Another is Legal & General boss Nigel Wilson.
What they recognise is that, be it from start-up business or gigantic infrastructure projects, equity is a more sound, more long-term and ultimately more attractive way of funding things.
It is also the way in which we can try to wean consumers, corporates and governments from their addiction to spending on a tide of bank-financed debt.
Rolet has done much to convince the Chancellor of the Exchequer that equity (admittedly the stuff traded on his exchange) deserves more of a tax break.
But he has not yet got it as far as the breaks allowed for companies using debt to fund their growth.
We need his voice even after the takeover.
