LSE mulls alternatives to Microsoft software

LONDON (Reuters) - The London Stock Exchange (LSE.L), under new top management since May, is considering changing its Microsoft-based (MSFT.O) trading system after fixing a glitch that caused a seven-hour outage last September.

An LSE spokeswoman said on Thursday the company constantly reviewed its technology to ensure it remained competitive in terms of speed, capacity and cost, and said last year's systems failure was not a motivation.

"The issue with the software ... was a combination of circumstances and a fix has been put in place. Nonetheless, because it's a very fast-moving business we need to remain competitive and will always keep technology under review."

"We're looking at our trading system and we're looking at what our options are. There haven't been any decisions made at all," she said.

Computerworld had written in a blog that the LSE, the world's third-largest share market, was set to abandon the Windows-based TradElect platform, which went live in June 2007 (blogs.computerworld.com).

The London Stock Exchange is facing increasingly fierce competition from new trading platforms such as Turquoise and Chi-X, forcing it to trim its trading fees.

The LSE was forced to suspend trading for about seven hours on September 8, which could have been one of the year's busiest trading days as markets rebounded after a U.S. decision to bail out mortgage firms Fannie Mae (FNM.N) and Freddie Mac (FRE.N).

Former Lehman Brothers banker Xavier Rolet took over in May as LSE chief executive from Clara Furse.

(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)