Where are we in this cycle today and how would you describe market conditions and the environment?

Yeah, so I referred to that phrase of rational complacency really in the spring when there was this sort of question of why aren't the markets reacting much more dramatically to what was going on in the world, particularly with respect to an energy crisis associated with the war in Iran.

And the point I was making at that point was that for most of the investing careers of many people in the markets, It has been very rational to, I'll say, buy the dip.

And if you really go back to the late 90s and the Greenspan put, whether it was intentional or not, there was this perception going back to that period that the Federal Reserve would step in and make sure that things would be okay whenever there were wobbles in the market.

And so you had a whole generation of market participants who were kind of trained on that belief.

And if you look back over the last 25 years, it's pretty accurate.

in that you have had lots of wobbles in the market and you have had lots of sort of market disruption and definitely corrections and of course the financial crisis.

How does the landscape, your competitive landscape look like? How does LSEC look like in that competitive landscape?

is wrong because they said you're going to publicly address your engagement.

I am happy to say we regularly engage with shareholders.

Yeah.

We have a lot of shareholders.

Including Cato and others as well.

We have lots of shareholders who have been with us for a long time.

We have a lot of very smart shareholders.

about the idea of a London listing, what do you think needs to be done to turn that around and get companies not kind of shrugging, but really excited about the prospect of listing on your exchange? So

Do you think this could be an initiative that they try and push ahead with? And where does that leave you? Because I felt like there were lots of conversations happening around you, maybe with you last year about consolidation.

I don't think that would be a big driver of a change in the economic landscape in Europe.

I think there is an opportunity for Europe to do a lot more in terms of consolidation of, if you're talking about market structure specifically, consolidation of the post-trade entities, The settlement CSDs, there are a lot across Europe.

I think consolidation of some of the more technical aspects like bankruptcy code, tax regimes, etc., all of which has been talked about for 20, 25 years in the context of capital markets union and the savings and investment union.

If the EU made progress in those areas, I think that actually would have an impact.

I think if the EU allowed more bank consolidation, I think that would have an impact.

And I think if there was a receptivity to greater capital market activity relative to just bank lending activity, I think that would also have an impact.

Is London doing just fine now, given the fact that it's going to be the big headquarters for visas now, big headquarters JP Morgan as well? Are we back on track in London in the financial markets?