When an exchange operates in the same time zones and language as the US, it faces the challenge of competing with peers that can leverage the world’s largest economy and a marketplace full of international investors. If that wasn’t enough competition, the Toronto Stock Exchange also faces being in the same league as some of its largest rivals.

“We have to be as good or actually better because they are so much bigger,” says John McKenzie, chief executive of TMX Group, which operates the TSX and the Montréal Exchange. “Big Canadian companies — they’re getting marketed to by US investment banks, Nasdaq and NYSE all the time. We have to demonstrate to them the value of listing in Canada.”