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Chancellor Rachel Reeves has stopped short of ruling out an income-tax increase in next month’s Budget, amid reports that she is considering breaking a key Labour manifesto promise to balance the nation’s books.
Asked directly about Treasury discussions first revealed by The Guardian, Reeves said she would “continue to support working people by keeping their taxes as low as possible”, but declined to repeat her earlier categorical commitment not to raise income tax, National Insurance or VAT.
Her carefully worded comments, made during a visit to Leeds on Friday, mark a shift from her stance in September, when she insisted Labour’s “manifesto commitments stand”.
Labour’s 2024 manifesto pledged not to increase the basic, higher or additional rates of income tax. Yet Treasury officials are said to be in “active discussions” about adding 1p to the basic rate, which could raise more than £8 billion a year, or lifting higher-rate thresholds for top earners.
Reeves faces one of the most constrained Budgets in modern times. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) recently downgraded UK productivity forecasts, blowing a £22 billion hole in the public finances and wiping out much of the £10 billion headroom she had set aside in March’s spring statement.
Government borrowing hit £20.2 billion in September — the highest for that month in five years — according to the Office for National Statistics, leaving the chancellor with limited scope to meet her own fiscal rules without raising additional revenue.
Reeves told reporters she understood that “the cost of living is still people’s number-one concern”, but emphasised her commitment to “support working people while ensuring sound public finances”. She added that although inflation had “come in better than expected”, significant challenges remained.
Under Labour’s self-imposed fiscal rules, the chancellor must ensure that government debt falls as a share of GDP by 2029-30 and that day-to-day spending is funded by tax receipts rather than borrowing.
The influential Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) warned this week that Reeves will “almost certainly” have to raise taxes to remain within those limits. Analysts note that while the effective interest rate on UK debt has fallen to its lowest level in over a year, the relief it offers is insufficient to close the gap.
Reeves has repeatedly signalled that “those with the broadest shoulders should pay their fair share”, suggesting a focus on wealthier individuals and professional partnerships used by lawyers and accountants.
However, economists say such targeted measures would raise only a fraction of the required sum, meaning that more politically sensitive options — including an income-tax rise — remain on the table.
If implemented, it would be the first increase in income-tax rates since 2010, when Labour introduced a 50 per cent top rate on earnings above £150,000, later reduced to 45 per cent by the coalition government.
At present, income above £12,570 is taxed at 20 per cent, rising to 40 per cent for income between £50,271 and £125,140, and 45 per cent above that threshold.
The Budget on 26 November will be a defining moment for Reeves as she seeks to reconcile fiscal credibility with political caution. Any move to raise income tax would risk a backlash from voters but could also reassure markets that Labour remains committed to disciplined, rules-based economic management.
As one Treasury insider put it this week: “She knows the politics are tough either way — but if she gets this right, it could buy her the credibility she needs for the long term.”
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Reeves refuses to rule out income tax rise as pressure mounts before Budget

The bosses of the UK’s biggest supermarket chains have warned that food prices could rise again if Chancellor Rachel Reeves increases taxes on the retail sector in her forthcoming Budget.
In a joint letter to the Treasury, executives from Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons, Aldi, Lidl, Waitrose, M&S and Iceland cautioned that households would “inevitably feel the impact” of any increase in business rates or other levies on the industry.
“Given the costs currently falling on the industry, including from the last Budget, high food inflation is likely to persist into 2026,” the letter stated. “This is not something that we would want to see prolonged by any measure in the Budget.”
The supermarkets’ intervention comes amid speculation that Reeves will unveil new tax measures to plug a £22 billion shortfall in the public finances, following the Office for Budget Responsibility’s downgrade of growth forecasts.
In particular, retailers are concerned about the government’s plans for a “business rates surtax” on large commercial properties — a move expected to hit supermarkets and distribution hubs hardest.
Under the proposed changes, smaller shops and hospitality venues with rateable values below £500,000 will benefit from lower rates, while large premises above that threshold — including major retail stores and warehouses — will face higher bills.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC), representing the country’s largest grocers, said large stores account for only a small share of retail locations but contribute around one-third of the sector’s total business rates.
BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said: “Retailers are doing everything possible to keep food prices affordable, but it’s an uphill battle with more than £7 billion in additional costs expected in 2025 alone. The simplest way to help would be to ensure business rates don’t rise further.”
Reeves is facing one of the toughest fiscal tests of her tenure ahead of the Autumn Budget on 26 November. Following last year’s £40 billion tax package — which included an increase in employer National Insurance contributions — she pledged not to “come back for more tax rises.”
However, analysts at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) warn that weaker growth, rising borrowing costs and unfunded spending pledges will almost certainly require further tax increases.
The Chancellor has hinted that “those with the broadest shoulders should pay their fair share”, but economists question whether targeted taxes on professional partnerships or the wealthy can raise sufficient funds without broader measures.
Food inflation, which peaked above 19 per cent in 2023, has eased but remains well above pre-pandemic levels. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reports that prices for staples such as butter, milk, chocolate and coffee have risen by between 12 and 19 per cent year on year.
Retailers argue that additional fiscal pressure could extend high prices into 2026, particularly as the sector grapples with global supply shocks, poor harvests, and rising wage costs.
Tesco chief executive Ken Murphy said recently that “enough is enough” on business taxation, revealing that higher National Insurance contributions have already cost the company £235 million this year.
Despite those pressures, Tesco expects profits of up to £3.1 billion for the full year, while Lidl reported its pre-tax profits more than tripled to £156.8 million in the year to February.
A Treasury spokesperson said that tackling inflation “remains a priority” and highlighted recent measures to cut business rates for smaller retailers, including butchers, bakers and high-street shops.
They added: “Business rates will be adjusted to reflect changes in property values so that the system continues to raise the same amount of revenue in real terms. Even if a property’s valuation rises, its bill may still fall if the tax rate is lowered.”
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Supermarkets warn tax rises could drive food prices higher

From handcrafted partyware to science-backed pet supplements, few firms look less alike than Meri Meri and PetLab Co. Yet they share a single, telling decision that has transformed how they work: both built their next phase of growth on Oracle NetSuite.
In separate conversations, Meri Meri’s managing director, Paul Cripps, and PetLab Co.’s chief financial officer, Tony Morreale, described, in unvarnished terms, what happens when a high-growth company ditches a patchwork of systems for a cloud ERP that acts as the business’s command centre.
Cripps arrived at Meri Meri—a San Francisco-registered, UK-run design house whose seasonal launches light up kitchen tables from London to Reno—mid-pandemic. He found a company with enviable creativity and a back office straining at the seams. Shopify, Amazon, B2B portals and a constellation of 3PLs all fed a heavily customised legacy ERP. The plumbing never quite held. Reports froze. Orders jammed in queues. “Every day there was an issue,” he says. “If a report ran, people made coffee while it locked up.” Decision-making slowed to the speed of a spinning progress wheel. In a global business that designs Christmas two years out and ships to two continents, uncertainty is more than an annoyance; it is drag.
Meri Meri faced a familiar crossroads: pay handsomely to re-implement an ageing system already papered over with one-off fixes, or start again with something built for best practice in the cloud. Cripps had implemented ERPs before. This time, NetSuite’s appeal was less about bells and whistles than about discipline. “Don’t try to make NetSuite fit your business—change your processes to match best practice,” he says. The company adopted OneWorld to reconcile a UK-led, US-registered structure and kept customisation to a minimum. The implementation took two and a half years in calendar terms, not because of complexity but because the company only had one safe cutover window—April to June—each year. A sandbox went up quickly; teams prodded, tested and suggested changes; and when the switch was finally thrown mid-May, something unusual happened: the noise stopped.
What changed first was the rhythm of the day. Under the old set-up, the Reno distribution centre opened before dawn and then waited for someone, somewhere, to release orders. Under NetSuite, Shopify purchases appeared in the ERP within about half a minute, hit the DC pick list moments later and were being packed inside five minutes. The pendulum swung from frustration to speed so quickly that customers began emailing ten minutes after checkout asking to amend orders already sealed in boxes. Cripps’s measure of success was delightfully un-technical. “By the end of June, it was almost like we’d never been without it,” he says. The floor went quiet. Exceptions evaporated. Customer service tickets, once counted in the hundreds each week, fell to a handful of genuine user mistakes. Overtime all but disappeared. The team that had been firefighting became, once again, a team.
The financial consequences are easy to miss because they creep in through absence: no overtime, no backfills, no morning queues, no costly consultants to unpick brittle integrations. Meri Meri’s headcount drifted down from the mid-nineties to around eighty through natural attrition, even as revenue climbed by more than a fifth. Finance shrank without drama; the warehouse moved from two shifts to one and a half. Against the cost of a modern cloud ERP, those avoided hires alone turn into a six-figure annual saving—before you count the opportunity value of moving faster.
If Meri Meri’s story is one of a creative manufacturer rediscovering flow, PetLab Co. offers the CFO’s view of a scale-up growing from start-up reflexes into institutional reliability. The London-founded, US-focused pet wellness brand launched in 2018 and rode a wave of direct-to-consumer demand. When Morreale arrived, the finance stack—perfectly reasonable for an early-stage business—had become a brake. Month-end stretched to four weeks. Multi-entity consolidation was clumsy. Inventory insight at SKU level was elusive. “I’ve implemented NetSuite three times,” he says. “For a business a couple of years into its journey, it’s the right breadth at the right price.”
PetLab’s implementation in 2021 coincided with a professionalising of its operating cadence. NetSuite automated bank reconciliations, turned month-end into a matter of days and finally delivered the granularity to answer the questions a scaled consumer brand must answer: which SKUs make money, in which channels, and how does that change with tariffs, packaging costs and shifting fulfilment footprints? The company mapped its five US warehouses directly in NetSuite, reconciled physical stock against system positions and moved beyond “never stock out” as a mantra to something more useful: never be surprised. When US-China packaging costs bit, the team modelled the SKU-level impact and shifted to Vietnam, tracking margin effects from the general ledger to the pallet.
The knock-on effects are cultural as much as financial. Morreale’s team of eleven has not grown, even as revenue surged from around $70 million to well north of $200 million. Automation has not hollowed out the department; it has lifted it. The repetitive is handled by machines; people move up the value chain. That, in turn, changes how outsiders see the company. In the bootstrapped years, PetLab built credibility with HSBC by sharing NetSuite-derived forecasts fortnightly. When private equity arrived to take a majority stake in 2025, diligence advisers described the numbers as “robust”. It is a small phrase that carries weight. Investors fund what they can trust. Trust starts with auditable, real-time data.
Both leaders are practical about artificial intelligence. Neither is chasing chatty front-ends for their own sake. At Meri Meri, AI already sits inside demand-planning via Netstock and will increasingly draft customer-service replies and surface cross-regional trends—California versus Florida, north-south seasonality, the subtle ways Halloween plays differently in the UK and US—so humans can spend their time on judgement, not retrieval. “AI won’t design our products,” Cripps says. “But it will buy back hours across the business. If you don’t embrace it, you’ll be left behind.” At PetLab, the lure is scenario planning that actually fits how a finance team works, with natural-language prompts and explainable outputs; until then, NetSuite’s core gets them most of the way.
In the end, the case for NetSuite here is not framed in the glossy language of digital transformation. It is disarmingly plain. If your warehouse waits for the system rather than the system serving the warehouse; if month-end bleeds into a third or fourth week; if customer service has become an exceptions desk; if you cannot answer a SKU-level margin question in the time it takes to walk to a meeting, you are not simply inefficient—you are throttling your ability to grow. What Cripps and Morreale reveal, each from different industries and instincts, is that a modern ERP is less a software purchase than a managerial choice. It is a decision to run on standard processes, to measure silence as a KPI, and to treat reliable numbers as a strategic asset.
“By the end of the first six weeks, it was like we’d never been without it,” says Cripps. Morreale offers the CFO’s version: same team, roughly triple the revenue, with banks and buyers leaning in rather than looking away. For ambitious businesses wondering whether the ceiling they feel is real, the lesson is simple. A stitched-together stack adds people to chase problems. A single cloud backbone compounds growth—with confidence.
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The cloud engine behind scale: why Oracle NetSuite can super-power your business

NatWest has delivered one of its strongest quarterly performances since the financial crisis, posting a 30.4 per cent surge in pre-tax profits to £2.2 billion for the three months to the end of September — far exceeding City expectations.
The FTSE 100 lender said income rose almost 16 per cent to £4.3 billion, driven by widening deposit margins and a modest calendar boost from one extra trading day in the quarter. Its net interest margin – the key measure of profitability between lending and deposits – increased to 2.37 per cent, up from 2.18 per cent a year earlier.
Shares in the group rose 3 per cent to 563p, their highest level since the taxpayer bailout of 2008, as investors welcomed the upgraded outlook.
Chief executive Paul Thwaite said the performance was “underpinned by healthy levels of customer activity,” adding that the group’s balance sheet remained resilient despite a challenging macroeconomic backdrop.
NatWest now expects full-year income, excluding one-off items, to reach around £16.3 billion, up from its previous guidance of “more than £16 billion”. It also raised its target return on tangible equity to above 18 per cent, up from the earlier 16.5 per cent forecast.
The results underscore how higher-for-longer interest rates have bolstered UK lenders’ earnings. The Bank of England base rate, which peaked at 5.25 per cent between 2023 and 2024, has since eased to 4 per cent — but remains well above historic norms, allowing banks to maintain healthy lending margins.
NatWest’s results follow similarly robust performances across the banking sector. Barclays reported £2.1 billion in pre-tax profits this week, announcing a £500 million share buyback, while Lloyds Banking Group posted £1.2 billion despite taking an £800 million provision related to motor finance mis-selling.
Banks have also benefited from “structural hedging” strategies, using derivatives to manage exposure to interest rate volatility — a key driver of earnings stability in the current climate.
However, bumper profits could bring unwanted attention from the Treasury ahead of the Chancellor’s Autumn Budget on 26 November. With Rachel Reeves seeking to plug a multibillion-pound fiscal gap, analysts warn that banks’ strong returns may make them an attractive target for a new tax measure or windfall levy.
Lenders insist they already face a heavier tax burden than global peers, arguing that further increases could damage the competitiveness of Britain’s financial sector at a time when international institutions are reassessing their UK exposure.
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NatWest profits surge 30% as higher interest rates fuel bank earnings

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is considering breaking one of Labour’s key election pledges by raising income tax in next month’s budget to help plug a £30 billion fiscal shortfall, according to senior government sources.
Three figures close to the budget process told The Guardian that discussions between the Treasury and No 10 have intensified in recent weeks, with officials exploring how to deliver a sustainable revenue boost without returning to further tax rises later in the parliament.
While no final decision has been taken, advisers believe that increasing income tax may be the only way to raise enough money to restore the public finances and create “headroom” for potential future tax cuts before the next election.
The fiscal challenge has been deepened by the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) decision to downgrade the UK’s productivity forecasts, a move expected to cost the Treasury around £20 billion annually.
Reeves must also find funds to reverse the winter fuel allowance cut, scrap planned welfare reductions, and end the two-child benefit cap — all measures previously criticised by Labour backbenchers.
Although falling gilt yields have reduced the government’s debt servicing costs by an estimated £2–3 billion, the reprieve is limited. Smaller measures, such as raising National Insurance for partners in law and accountancy firms, are expected to generate no more than £2 billion.
Sources say the Treasury is debating several configurations of income tax changes:
• A 1p rise in the basic rate, from 20p to 21p, would raise about £8.2 billion annually, but could inflame public anger during a fragile cost-of-living recovery.
• A 1p increase in the higher rate, from 40p to 41p for incomes above £50,271, would generate roughly £2.1 billion.
• An additional rate increase for those earning over £125,000 would raise only £230 million per penny.
Reeves is said to be torn between maintaining her promise to protect working households and ensuring that the public finances meet her strict fiscal rules. One senior Treasury source said:
“There is a live debate about how much headroom we want. If we aim high, we might not have to come back and raise taxes again — but that makes it more likely we’ll have to raise income tax now.”
While the Chancellor and Prime Minister Keir Starmer continue to insist that Labour’s manifesto commitments “stand”, they have stopped short of explicitly ruling out tax increases.
Reeves is acutely aware of the political fallout that would come from abandoning her earlier pledge, particularly after she broke another promise last year by raising National Insurance. Advisers say she wants to ensure that any new revenue plan is framed as “a one-off, responsible measure to safeguard economic stability.”
The Budget Board — co-chaired by Treasury minister Torsten Bell and the Prime Minister’s chief economic adviser Dame Minouche Shafik — is currently weighing the competing options.
One proposal, backed by the Resolution Foundation, would see the basic rate of income tax rise by 2p while employee National Insurance contributions fall by 2p, effectively shifting more of the burden onto pensioners and landlords, who do not pay NI.
Ruth Curtice, director of the think tank, said:
“Of all the major taxes, putting up income tax fits best with the UK’s current economic woes of low growth and sticky inflation. Whether or not rates change, we need broader tax reform to reduce the imbalance between earned and unearned income.”
Next month’s 26 November Budget is shaping up to be one of the most politically charged in years. Reeves faces pressure to prove her fiscal discipline to markets while maintaining the government’s credibility with voters still scarred by years of austerity and rising living costs.
As one Treasury official put it: “The politics are bad either way. What matters is doing the right thing.”
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Reeves weighs income tax rise to plug £30bn fiscal hole

Entrepreneur Reedah El-Saie, founder of the educational technology company Brainspark Games, has secured a £30,000 investment on BBC’s Dragons’ Den after an impressive pitch that earned her the rare support of three Dragons.
The London-based founder convinced Sara Davies, Deborah Meaden and Touker Suleyman to each invest £10,000 in her AI-driven learning platform, designed to make education fun, inclusive and accessible for all learners — particularly those who are neurodiverse.
Launched in 2019, Brainspark Games develops immersive, curriculum-aligned mobile games aimed at children aged 7 to 13, covering subjects such as maths, English, science, languages, art and climate awareness.
El-Saie said the games’ AI engine compresses “12 weeks of learning into just a few hours of gameplay”, allowing children to progress rapidly while enjoying an engaging, story-led experience.
The entrepreneur, who has already invested around £400,000 of her own funds into the company, told the Dragons that Brainspark had also secured grants from Innovate UK and backing from several “super angels” in the gaming industry. At the time of filming, the company remained pre-revenue, and she was seeking £10,000 for 1% equity.
While Peter Jones and Steven Bartlett questioned the commercial viability of selling directly to schools — with Jones noting the difficulty of aligning with the National Curriculum — the other Dragons were quick to spot the potential.
Sara Davies and Deborah Meaden both offered to meet El-Saie’s initial valuation, praising the product’s innovation and educational impact. Touker Suleyman, initially demanding 5% equity, eventually made a rare concession to match the 1% deal, joining the trio of investors.
“That’s how to slay three Dragons,” Davies quipped as El-Saie left the Den triumphant.
Speaking after the episode aired, the mother-of-three said: “Before heading into the studio, I watched every previous episode and prepared for every possible question. I was genuinely surprised by how impressed the Dragons were.”
El-Saie highlighted how the investors’ collective expertise would accelerate Brainspark’s next phase: Meaden’s education sector connections — including links with Mumsnet’s founder — would help with outreach; Davies’ parent-focused marketing insight would strengthen the consumer proposition; and Suleyman’s retail acumen would guide a forthcoming merchandise launch.
Brainspark Games specialises in culturally inclusive “neurogames” that combine digital learning with real-world engagement. The company is now developing I/GCSE-level educational games as part of its wider R&D programme.
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Brainspark Games founder secures triple investment on Dragons’ Den

Sir Tony Blair has urged Energy Secretary Ed Miliband to ditch his 2030 clean power target and cut green levies as his think tank warns that current climate policies are driving up costs for homes and businesses.
A new report from the Tony Blair Institute (TBI), personally approved by the former prime minister, claims the government’s commitment to fully decarbonise the electricity grid by 2030 is “destroying industry” and “damaging households.”
The intervention, which has sparked fury within the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, highlights growing divisions inside Labour over the pace and affordability of the party’s green transition.
The report’s authors, led by Ryan Wain, said Labour’s clean power agenda risks pushing voters “towards populists” such as Reform UK ahead of next year’s regional elections, warning that the government’s energy policies “must be recalibrated around affordability.”
“We’re in a cost of living crisis as well as a climate crisis — you can’t just pick one and pretend the other doesn’t exist,” Wain said.
“Right-wing populists are already exploiting this tension. Unless electricity becomes cheaper, the politics of net zero will become toxic.”
Blair, who has made energy reform a personal focus through his institute, backed the report’s call for “cheap, clean power” rather than the current approach, which he said has made the UK “a low-carbon but high-cost economy.”
The TBI report argues that green levies now make up 20% of the average electricity bill, up from just 8.5% in 2015, and that policy costs now exceed the cost of actual electricity for the average household — £334 versus £324.
It also warns that the cost of connecting Britain’s new offshore wind farms to the grid will exceed the cost of the turbines themselves, with the required pylon and substation infrastructure set to cost £112 billion.
The think tank concluded: “The trend in UK energy over recent decades has been the transformation of our electricity sector from a cheap, high-carbon one to an expensive, low-carbon one.”
Miliband, who is overseeing Labour’s flagship Clean Power 2030 policy, reportedly reacted angrily to the publication, instructing civil servants to issue a statement rejecting the findings.
It is the second high-profile clash between Blair and Miliband this year. In April, the former prime minister warned that current net zero plans were “doomed to fail” due to unrealistic timelines and inadequate investment in grid capacity.
Tone Langengen, TBI’s lead energy adviser, said the Clean Power 2030 plan had been well-intentioned but was now “out of step with economic reality.”
“Launched during the gas crisis, in a low-interest environment, the plan was right for its time. But circumstances have changed. The UK needs to prioritise cheaper clean electricity to lower bills and attract new industries.”
Miliband is already under pressure from energy leaders, who argue that renewable subsidies and network costs are driving up household bills.
Rachel Fletcher, Director of Policy and Regulation at Octopus Energy, warned last week that green levies and grid upgrades could add around £300 to the typical household electricity bill by 2030.
Meanwhile, the government insists its reforms will ultimately lower costs and cut reliance on fossil fuels.
A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson said: “Our mission is relentlessly focused on delivering lower bills and tackling the affordability crisis driven by fossil fuel dependence.
That’s why we’ve launched a golden age of new nuclear and approved record levels of clean power investment to drive growth and good jobs.”
Blair’s intervention underscores the political tightrope Labour faces — balancing the need to meet net zero targets while addressing the cost-of-living crisis.
With the Budget due next month and energy costs still among the highest in Europe, advisers warn that Miliband’s clean energy revolution could become a political liability if voters continue to associate green policy with higher bills.
As one senior Labour figure privately told Business Matters: “Tony’s saying what a lot of us are thinking — the politics of net zero are changing fast, and affordability has to come first.”
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Tony Blair urges Ed Miliband to scrap green levies amid energy cost backlash

The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) has secured a £170 million investment from 11 of the world’s largest banks, strengthening its post-trade operations and deepening ties with key industry partners.
The investment, announced alongside the group’s Q3 2025 results, values LSEG’s Post Trade Solutions arm at £850 million and marks another milestone in the company’s strategy to expand its data and risk management technology footprint.
Participating banks include Bank of America, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citi, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Nomura, Société Générale, and UBS, who will together take a 20% stake in the Post Trade Solutions business.
The announcement came as LSEG posted another quarter of steady growth. Total income rose to £2.3 billion, up from £2.2 billion a year earlier, while gross profit increased 6.5% to just over £2 billion, as costs grew more slowly than revenues.
Its Data & Analytics division – home to flagship products such as Refinitiv and Workspace – generated £982 million in revenue, up 4.9%, while FTSE Russell climbed 9.3% to £241 million.
The Post Trade Solutions business, which provides technology for the over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives market, brought in £96 million in revenue and £16 million in EBITDA last year.
Under the new structure, LSEG will increase its share of revenue from SwapClear, the central clearing service operated by its subsidiary LCH Group.
Founding banks’ revenue entitlement will fall from 30% to 15% in 2025, and then to 10% in 2026, while LSEG will pay £1.15 billion over two years for the change — with an additional £200 million linked to performance milestones.
Chief executive David Schwimmer said the transaction “strengthens our partnership and strategic alignment with key customers” and “delivers attractive margin and earnings enhancement.”
“We continued our strong momentum in Q3, driving growth across all business lines. With our partnerships in AI and data analytics, and a new phase of buybacks, we’re confident in LSEG’s long-term growth potential.”
The group also reiterated its ambition to position itself as a data and technology powerhouse in global finance. LSEG is expanding its collaborations with Microsoft, Databricks, Rogo and Snowflake, embedding its data into AI-driven analytics and trading platforms.
It has launched an Azure-based trade routing network connecting over 1,600 investment firms, and new AI features on its Workspace platform are expected to go live before year-end.
LSEG has already completed £938 million of its current £1 billion share buyback, and will launch another £1 billion programme by early 2026 — bringing total planned capital deployment to £3.5 billion.
The group’s shares, which had fallen around 20% earlier this year, rose more than 5% to 9,172p following the announcement, giving LSEG a market capitalisation of £44.8 billion.
Schwimmer said the company enters the final quarter of 2025 “with strong momentum, accelerating profitability, and clear strategic direction.”
Daniel Maguire, head of markets and CEO of LCH Group, added: “SwapClear was a pioneer in innovation 25 years ago. This transaction reaffirms that spirit — and our partners’ commitment to advancing the post-trade ecosystem.”
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London Stock Exchange seals £170m deal with 11 global banks to strengthen post-trade operations

Opening a trading account is the first step toward participating in global financial markets. It allows individuals to access various instruments, from stocks and commodities to currencies and indices.
The process might seem technical at first, but with a structured approach, anyone can set up a secure and functional trading account within minutes.
According to SOHO International experts, the setup process ensures clients have a safe and transparent entry point into the trading environment. Each step, from registration to verification, is designed to confirm identity, secure data, and establish the account type that fits the trader’s goals and risk tolerance.
Step 1: Registering and Creating Your Profile
The initial stage of setting up a trading account involves registering through the company’s official platform. Users are asked to provide a valid email address, create a strong password, and select their preferred account currency. This forms the foundation of the client’s trading profile and helps tailor the experience to their financial preferences.
After submitting these details, clients receive a verification email to confirm ownership of the address provided. This step ensures account access remains restricted to the rightful user. SOHO International emphasizes that using a secure email is essential, as it serves as the main channel for verification codes and important updates.
Once confirmed, clients can log in to their dashboard and proceed with the next steps in setting up and funding their account.
Step 2: Choosing the Right Account Type
Different traders have varying goals and capital levels. To accommodate this, most platforms offer tiered account options. Brokers like SOHO International offer clients the option to choose between several accounts, such as Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, and VIP accounts. Each level offers different tools and conditions, such as spreads, leverage, and access to support.
Selecting the right account depends on the amount of capital one plans to deploy and the type of trading activity intended. Beginners often start with the lowest account tiers for essential features and manageable risk. More experienced traders may opt for higher-tier accounts that include additional insights and services.
Experts from SOHO International recommend reviewing the account structures carefully before making a selection, as the right tier can influence a trader’s long-term strategy and flexibility.
Step 3: Completing Verification and Funding the Account
Before trading begins, users must complete verification by submitting identification and proof of address. This ensures compliance with regulatory standards and prevents fraud. Once verified, clients can fund their accounts using secure payment methods supported by the platform. Depositing funds is usually quick, and withdrawals follow a similar process, with strict security to ensure client protection.
Final Thoughts
Setting up a trading account is a simple but crucial process that lays the groundwork for a secure trading journey. By following each step (registration, verification, account selection, and funding), new traders can ensure they’re ready to engage responsibly.
According to specialists, understanding each stage helps clients start trading with clarity and confidence, setting the tone for a disciplined and informed experience in the markets.
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Setting Up a Trading Account – A Step-by-Step Guide by SOHO International