By Laura Matthews and Suzanne McGee
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Texas Stock Exchange on Monday announced a board of directors in its latest step toward building a national exchange to compete with long-established platforms in New York and said it was preparing to launch operations next year.
TXSE announced in June that it plans to register with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission with backing from BlackRock (NYSE and Citadel Securities. It said on Monday it had raised $135 million.
The exchange also said Monday that Rick Perry, former governor of Texas and former U.S. energy secretary, will serve on the board. Other directors include Rick Roberts, former SEC commissioner, and Alex Bussandri, global head of strategy at Citadel Securities.
The exchange has also attracted staff from Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange, a division of the Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE:), as well as other trading platforms, it said Monday.
“The Texas Stock Exchange is attracting big names in preparation for a possible launch in 2025,” said Owen Lau, senior analyst at Oppenheimer & Co, noting that the space is competitive.
Nasdaq announced last week that it implemented a regional management structure for its global listings franchise and named Texas native Rachel Racz as head of listings for Texas, the U.S. South and Latin America. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
James Lee, founder and CEO of TXSE Group Inc, said the exchange plans to file with the SEC in the coming months.
Following the approval, he added that TXSE will execute its first operations in late 2025 and launch its listing in early 2026, making Dallas “a new hub for the US capital markets.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Monday that the exchange will ensure companies have access to capital and market participants have more options.
The exchange also named Cam Smith as its global head of trading and co-president. Smith began his career working for e-commerce platforms and served as president of Quantlab, an automated proprietary trading company.
Jeff Brown, former acting general counsel of Carlos Schwab (NYSE:), serves as general counsel of TXSE Group Inc and chief regulatory officer of the exchange.
Nicole Chambers, who managed the Texas market for Nasdaq, will manage corporate listings. Jeff Karcher and Marc Cunningham, who covered the Southeast US and Texas while working at the NYSE, will serve as global managing directors.
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