Putting together the London and Toronto stock exchanges will not be easy

David Baines, writing in the Vancouver Sun, scratches his head about the merger of the London and Toronto stock exchanges:

But how do you merge two stock exchanges that have distinctly different ways of doing business, and operate under quite different regulatory regimes?

Listed companies on AIM and the TSXV operate under completely different regulatory regimes. In England, it’s the Financial Services Authority, which is undergoing a structural overhaul in the aftermath of the 2008 financial meltdown. In Canada, we have a herd of provincial commissions which the federal government is trying to corral in single federal authority, and we all know how well that’s going.

Until these rules are harmonized, a company that wants to inter-list on both exchanges has to comply with the rules and regulations in both countries. Given that we can’t even harmonize rules within the country, I don’t think we will have much luck harmonizing rules between countries.