Shorter London trading day supported by banks and asset managers

Big banks and asset managers have called for a shorter working day for London share traders to make jobs healthier and more open to women.

The Investment Association and the Association for Financial Markets in Europe, which represent large fund managers and investment banks, support reducing the trading day to seven hours from eight and a half hours, Bloomberg reported.

The associations have advocated a shorter day, starting at 09:00 or 09:30 instead of 08:00 in responses to the London Stock Exchange's consultation on working hours, which closes on 31 January.

Supporters of shorter hours have argued the move would give workers a better work-life balance and make trading jobs more attractive to women. If the European trading day was cut to seven hours it would still be longer than the US while overlapping with trading in New York.

“It’s high time we end the long hours culture, which is detrimental to diversity and mental health, and inefficient for the markets,” Galina Dimitrova, director of capital markets at the IA, told Bloomberg. She said the IA would expect exchanges across Europe to follow London's lead.

The IA said reducing hours would make European markets more efficient. The US market has six times the turnover and a lower cost of trading in shorter hours, it added. Both lobby groups said they would support a 12-month trial.