The Toronto Stock Exchange is seeking regulatory approval to allow it to trade securities listed on other Canadian stock exchanges.

A notice published in Friday’s OSC Bulletin indicates that TSX Inc. is seeking approval for amendments (already approved by its board) to ensure that it can facilitate trading in securities that are not listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, but are listed by another recognized exchange in Canada.

The TSX says that clarifying its rules to permit trading in securities listed on other exchanges allows it, “to leverage its trade execution strength in the event that it determines to trade securities that are listed on another Canadian exchange.”

The move appears to be particularly directed at the proposed Alpha Exchange Inc., which is seeking regulatory approval to operate as an exchange. The TSX would like the ability to trade securities that are listed on Alpha if it becomes an exchange. It says that if it decides to do this, it will give notice “so that there is no confusion in the market regarding the securities being traded on TSX”.

“Given the framework for competitive trading in Canada, it is sensible from a policy perspective to enable TSX to trade the securities of issuers listed on other exchanges when [alternative trading systems] are permitted to trade these securities,” it says.

TSX notes that all securities traded on the TSX, whether or not they are listed by the TSX, will trade in the same book and all trades will be subject to the TSX rules. Order entry will be identical too, it says. TSX data feeds will include a unique marker distinguishing the listing exchange for each security, as will any downstream reporting compiled by TSX that includes symbol level information. In addition to the listing exchange identifier, securities listed on another exchange will be added to TMX systems as a separate stock group.

Comments on the proposal are due by June 20.

IE

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