Aequitas Ready to Launch Neo Exchange Next Year

The Toronto-based firm, which is aiming to build a stock exchange geared toward eliminating what it terms "predatory" high-frequency trading, will be launching its trading and listing platforms at the beginning of 2015, followed by the launch of Aequitas private markets platform, which is still pending regulatory approval.

"We appreciate the careful review undertaken by the OSC," says Jos Schmitt, the president and chief executive officer of Aequitas NEO Exchange. "We are now in a position to help promote confidence and build an exchange of the future using a bold new blueprint that puts investors, companies and their dealers first."

The user-focused model of the Canadian exchange is hoping to address the pressing market issues of fairness, liquidity and transparency impacting investor confidence.

Owned by market participants such as Barclays Corporation Limited, BCE, CI Investments, IGM Financial, ITG Canada, and RBC Dominion Securities, Aequitas Innovations says it has re-mutualized the exchange business by involving core users to ensure that the interests of all stakeholders will be represented at all times and that mechanisms are in place to manage conflicts of interest.