RBC and Partners Form New Company to Take on TSX

A new company called Aequitas Innovations Inc has been launched with the intention of creating a new stock exchange to compete with the Toronto main board.

The group’s founding shareholders include the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), (TSX:RY, NYSE:RY), Barclays Corporation, (LSE:BARC), CI Investments, IGM Financial, (TSX:IGM), ITG Group, and PSP Public Markets.

“Through Aequitas, we have a compelling opportunity to create a level playing field for both retail and institutional investors by challenging certain predatory high frequency trading strategies which have impacted the quality of existing equity markets,” Aequitas Chair Greg Mills, who is also co-head, global equities, RBC Capital Markets, said in a press release.

“Marketplaces in Canada and around the globe are increasingly out of sync with their traditional users as they attract and cater to volume and revenue-generating trading over traditional investors and true market makers.  Aequitas is designed to promote true and reliable liquidity, and will provide an operating model more aligned with the interests of investors and issuers to support market quality.”

The press release states that the proposal to operate an exchange is subject to regulatory review with a formal exchange recognition application to be filed. That filing is planned for the end of 2013.

Click here for the full Aequitas Innovations press release