The Financial Services Board (FSB) on Wednesday granted a new exchange licence with an infrastructure to clear to A2X Markets. This is the third new stock exchange licence granted by the regulator in just over a year, following those given to ZAR X and 4AX.

The entry of A2X into the market is particularly noteworthy because its business model is to compete directly with the JSE, which still holds an effective monopoly. A2X will be offering a secondary listings platform on which the same companies currently listed on the JSE can also issue stock.

The company aims to offer a quicker and more cost-effective trading platform to attract market participants.

“A2X has positioned itself to offer significant savings in the end-to-end cost of transacting in equities while at the same time maintaining and furthering the high regulatory standards set by the FSB,” CEO Kevin Brady said in a statement.

He added that the exchange hopes to have a fully functional test environment by July 2017 and to go live in the final quarter of 2017.

Late last month, A2X announced that it had concluded a deal with Patrice Motsepe’s African Rainbow Capital (ARC). The transaction sees ARC taking a 20% stake in the exchange, with the option to increase its holding to 25%.