1977–2008
Shorcan Brokers Limited was established in 1977 as the first inter-dealer broker in Canada. The founding shareholders were Carroll, McEntee & McGinley a primary dealer in the US Treasury market and Mr. Don Webb who had been the Chairman and CEO of Merrill Lynch Canada. Three persons were hired, including Jim Magee, today’s President and CEO and Mr. Jeff Morrison, today’s head of Information Systems, and they quickly established their leadership as specialists in the voice brokering of Canada treasury bills.
Shorcan was the first to codify the trading rules of the IDB market with the publication of its Procedures and Guidelines, which have been amended and republished seven times since 1978.
Also in the late 1970s, Shorcan introduced electronic communication brokering with the installation of the first Video Display System to service the Canadian money market. The method used was to display customers’ firm prices on a screen network, which was available only to Shorcan’s customers. Shorcan screens were installed at the trading desks of major investment dealers and, for the first time, customers’ real-time prices were disseminated throughout the dealer community instantaneously.
Expansion of the business continued into the 1980s. Shorcan added provincial bonds to its list of products, which by that time, included federal government bonds, treasury bills and bankers’ acceptances. In October of 1984, Canadian banks were given direct access to the Shorcan trading system. The banks added a great deal of breadth to the market.
In 1988, Shorcan was acquired by EXCO plc of London and RMJ Securities of New York. Exco’s inter-dealer broker operations extended to all the major financial centres of the world.
In that same year, Shorcan was approved by the Investment Dealers Association of Canada (IDA) as an IDA Inter-Dealer Bond Broker (IDB). Shorcan also became a founding member of the Inter-Dealer Broker Association of Canada (IDBA), which represents brokers in the Canadian bond markets, money markets, and foreign exchange markets.
In the late 1980s, Shorcan extended its brokerage services to the United Kingdom by setting up its wholly-owned subsidiary Shorcan/London Limited. Service was ultimately withdrawn from London in early 1999 due to declining market activity.
In December 1998, Shorcan management led an employee purchase of Shorcan from Intercapital plc (formerly EXCO).
Shorcan has made significant innovations, such as, the first IDB to introduce a team approach toward account management and business development, the first to implement Straight Through Processing (STP), the most significant technology improvement since the deployment of screens in the market (1979), and the first to implement the Balanced Scorecard to manage business behaviour and strategic development.
In 2006, Shorcan was acquired by TSX Group. Shorcan brings a wealth of IDB expertise complementing TSX Group’s existing strength in equities, fixed income and other asset classes.
That’s over 30 years of service to the Canadian IDB market. Thank you for this great opportunity. We are now planning for the next 30 years.
