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Royal Bank of Canada, the country’s biggest bank, is leading a group of investors and brokers creating a new Canadian stock exchange to compete with TMX Group Ltd.’s Toronto Stock Exchange.

The bourse, to be run by a venture called Aequitas Innovations Inc., is also backed by Barclays Plc, CI Financial Corp., IGM Financial Inc., ITG Canada Corp. and PSP Public Markets Inc., according to a statement today. The group will file an application to regulators by the end of the year.

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Aequitas will be led by Chief Executive Officer Jos Schmitt, who started Alpha Group as a rival platform to TMX about four years ago. He left the company in October after a dozen pension funds and major lenders, excluding Royal Bank, bought Alpha along with Canadian Depository for Securities Ltd. to combine with TMX in a $3.73-billion deal.

“Alpha was created, initiated by dealers to put competitive pressure on the incumbent exchange and it was all about a cost play,” Schmitt said in a phone interview. “If you look at Aequitas, it’s all about the issuers, the investors and the dealers coming together and saying ’we need to tackle some fundamental challenges in our markets.’”