A new Canadian stock exchange hoping to take on TMX Group and keep out high-frequency traders has enlisted London Stock Exchange-owned MillenniumIT to build its technology platform.
Aequitas Innovations - which takes its name from the Latin for fairness - is hoping to have its exchange and private securities platform up and running by early next year.
The firm - which counts the Royal Bank of Canada, pension fund OMERS Capital Markets, and mutual fund manager IGM Financial among its backers - argues that "predatory" HFT practices have eroded investor and issuer confidence in the Canadian capital markets.
It plans to challenge bank-owned TMX Group, which dominates the Canadian equity markets, with a model designed to deter HFT firms through unattractive fees and speed bumps.
Following a request for proposals process, the group has now selected MillenniumIT to build a tailored platform based on the LSE-owned tech firm's trading, order-routing, and market data systems.
Jos Schmitt, CEO, Aequitas, says: "This tailored technology design will allow us to successfully deliver on our mandate to re-establish more fairness in the markets, strengthen the capital formation process and introduce innovation and meaningful competition in the marketplace landscape."