Seven Canadian investment banks have joined forces to build a rival securities trading platform to the Toronto Stock Exchange, according to a report in the Financial Times. According to the newspaper, the new trading system is to be called Project Alpha, and is backed by BMO Capital Markets, Canacord Capital Corporation, CIBC World Markets, National Bank Financial, RBC Capital Markets, Scotia Capital and TD Securities.
Jos Schmitt, chief executive of Alpha, said it will have a continuous electronic order platform and trades will be made on a price-time basis. The Financial Times quotes him as saying “the future strength of Canadian capital markets depends on our ability to achieve the same kind of efficiencies already being realized around the world by leveraging today’s technology. This new Canadian-driven trading platform is being designed to find those efficiencies, increasing both competitiveness and liquidity.”
Project Alpha mirrors the Project Turquoise efforts by investment banks in Europe to increase competition with stock exchanges. The US has seen around 40 alternative trading venues set up in the past 12 months alone. Alpha expects to go live in 2008, subject to regulatory approvals.