London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) will today donate a day's worth of equity trading fees from London Stock Exchange, Borsa Italiana and Turquoise - expected to be in excess of £500,000 - to charity.
Distributed through LSEG Foundation, the money raised will help support a wide range of charities in the communities in which the Group operates. These include Friendship Works, a London-based youth mentoring organisation; In-Presa, a youth development charity based in Milan; and Habitat for Humanity, a housing charity working with communities in Sri Lanka, which with funding from the LSEG Foundation has been able to build 105 homes for people displaced by civil war. For the first time, a proportion of the money raised on the day will also be donated to Comic Relief.
To celebrate the occasion, representatives from Friendship Works, In-Presa, UNICEF and Habitat for Humanity attended a Market Open Ceremony in London this morning. It was hosted by Tim Wright, who sits on the LSEG Foundation committee, and who is LSEG's Group Chief of Staff. In Milan, a celebration banner was unveiled outside Palazzo Mezzanotte, Borsa Italiana's headquarters.
Tim Wright, Group Chief of Staff, LSEG, said:
"Last year we received incredible support from our customers and we raised over half a million pounds. We're delighted to be hosting our second Charity Trading Day and hope to beat last year's total. We are especially pleased to welcome our partner charities to open trading this morning, and proud to be able to support them in all the incredible work they do."
Last year, trading fees totalling £529,400 were donated to the LSEG Foundation, which has raised £1.5 million for a number of charities since its launch in 2010.