London Stock Exchange owner eyes multimillion pound pay hike for boss

The owner of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) is plotting a multimillion pound boost to its chief executive's pay package amid warnings by Britain's blue-chip companies that boardroom compensation risks falling further behind US peers.

Sky News has learnt that LSEG has begun consulting with shareholders on a revised pay deal for David Schwimmer that could increase his maximum annual pay by roughly £2m.

The company, which is dominated by sophisticated data and trading services and now derives only a modest proportion of its income from the London Stock Exchange, plans to put its revised policy to a binding vote of investors next spring.

Under the proposals being discussed with leading shareholders, Mr Schwimmer's base salary of £1.375m and short-term bonus potential of three times salary would remain unchanged.

However, his maximum long-term incentive plan would increase from 550pc of salary to 700pc of salary, according to one investor.

LSEG would also increase Mr Schwimmer's minimum shareholding requirement from six times salary to seven times salary, equalising it with the maximum LTIP award, they added.

In total, the changes would increase Mr Schwimmer's total maximum pay package to just over £15m if his salary is maintained at £1.375m.

That would propel him further up the ranks of Britain's best-remunerated public company bosses, which LSEG has told shareholders is important if it is to retain executive talent in a globally competitive sector.

Last year, Mr Schwimmer, who took over in 2018, was paid about £6.5m.

The move by LSEG's board to increase its chief executive's potential remuneration comes at a crucial time for the public equity markets in which the company plays such a critical role.

An exodus of listed businesses through takeovers by overseas rivals and private equity firms has stoked a sense of panic about the long-term viability of the London market.

That is despite the FTSE-100 trading at over 10800 points, edging closer to the unprecedented milestone of 11000.

The index's all-time intraday high of over 10900 was reached in July.

The LSE has been fighting to persuade more fast-growing companies to list their shares in London in recent years, but with only limited success, with many opting for more liquid markets in New York instead.

Scrutiny of executive pay by investors and the media has often been cited by companies and the LSE as a factor in London's diminishing attractiveness to IPO candidates.

The government is paving the way for that scrutiny to be diluted, proposing as part of an ongoing consultation that shareholders should lose their right to have an annual say on boardroom pay.

That proposal is being resisted by a number of groups, including the Investment Association, which oversees the influential IVIS voting advisory service.

"The advisory vote on remuneration is an important mechanism for shareholder accountability and helps maintain alignment between pay, company performance and shareholder interests," the IA told Sky News.

So far this year, companies including Rolls-Royce Holdings and Shell have gained approval for significant pay hikes, with AstraZeneca and Glencore among those in discussions about overhauling their own policies.

An LSEG spokesperson declined to comment on Wednesday.

(c) Sky News 2026: London Stock Exchange owner eyes multimillion pound pay hike for boss