Remembering the Big Bang, forty years on

A personal reflection marks the 40th anniversary of London’s “Big Bang” reforms, describing how October 27, 1986 ended the old, private, single-capacity structure of the City’s capital markets. The author links the change to the abolition of fixed commission rates for securities transactions, led under LSE chairman Sir Nicholas Goodison, which quickly reshaped London finance from late-17th-century norms into a late-20th-century competitive market. The piece says professionalism replaced paternalism, competition for talent intensified, wages rose sharply, and costs ballooned amid overcapacity. It recalls the 1987 stock market crash as a shock at the time and notes how some firms failed soon after, including the author’s employers, which ceased trading in 1989. The account ties the period to Thatcher-era market liberalization and the “death” of “gentlemanly capitalism.”