In a move designed to promote Canadian equity market transparency and bolster trading volume when it opens later this spring, Aequitas’ Neo exchange is publishing its market data fees – which will be free when the bourse opens later this spring.
The publication of the market data fees followed the official regulatory approval of the costs. Neo exchange said that publishing the fees would benefit investors and companies looking to list and raise capital. The move also ups the ante for market data fee disclosure among exchanges in the Great North.
Market data for NEO-listed securities will be free for everyone at the outset, the exchange said in a release.
– Real-time displayed market data for TSX / TSXV-listed securities traded on the NEO Exchange will be free for non-professional users (retail investors).
– Real-time displayed market data fees for TSX / TSXV-listed securities traded on the NEO Exchange will be waived until the NEO Exchange reaches 5% market share.
Once at 5% market share, professional data fees will be at a competitive level.
The full schedule of fees is available here.
“There is a current stranglehold on the dissemination of trading information in Canada and it has resulted in prohibitive and virtually monopolistic pricing,” said Jos Schmitt, President & CEO, Aequitas NEO Exchange. “This prevents numerous investors, including the vast majority of Canadian retail investors and their advisors, from seeing in real-time the full picture of what is really happening in the markets. There is a real need for something new and different in the Canadian market data space. It’s time for change.”
Canadian real-time displayed market data fees, normalized by both volume and value traded, are different than in the U.S. For example, a retail investor this type of data is more than four times more expensive in Canada than in the United States, a market 10 times the size.
“The prohibitive fees often cause investors at home and abroad to minimize their access to Canadian market data impacting their investment decisions,” Schmitt added. “Indirectly, Canadian capital raising companies miss opportunities to promote their securities and trading activity.
