It must have the bitter taste of a ruined grape harvest. For the oenophile former chief executive of the London Stock Exchange Group, there is plenty of time ‎to mull over recent events during a year of gardening — or, more aptly, vineyard — leave.

‎Consciously or not, Xavier Rolet’s reference in his resignation statement to the "unwelcome publicity" surrounding recent events at the exchange was laden with irony. Against a backdrop of Brexit uncertainty and ongoing efforts by European rivals to poach London's lucrative clearing activities, the company’s boardroom crisis could not be more poorly timed for a fulcrum of London’s capital markets.