(The Center Square) – Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday announced the leadership of the newly formed Texas Stock Exchange (TXSE) alongside TXSE Group Inc. Founder and CEO James Lee.
They were joined by former Gov. Rick Perry, state lawmakers and business leaders.
“Texas already has become the home of capital in the United States of America. Today we are staking a claim as a home of capital markets with the addition of the Texas Stock Exchange,” Abbott said. “This is another step that expands the financial might of Texas and the United States and cements our economic power on the global stage.”
“A Stock Exchange in Texas has long been a vision of mine,” Abbott said. The TXSE “will ensure that businesses have access to capital and that market participants have more choices. Texas is the modern embodiment of the American dream where everyone has the opportunity to succeed, and the Texas Stock Exchange will ensure more businesses have that opportunity.”
“The Texas economic juggernaut is well established,” he said, citing Texas ranking first in job creation and multiple business ratings every year. The rankings consistently cite no business tax, less regulatory burdens, skilled, quality labor, and a friendly business environment. The TXSE will also benefit from these factors, providing an alternative to the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, Lee has explained, The Center Square reported.
“When you look at the number of Fortune 500 companies that are flocking to our state, you can see that there is no state in America to have such a bustling economy. When you add it all up it’s really astonishing what’s happened to the Texas economy,” Abbott said.
Abbott again touted Texas as the 8th largest economy in the world. “There are only 7 countries with an economy larger than Texas: the United States, China, India, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany and France. And the way things are going, by this time next year, Texas may very well pass France and have the seventh largest economy in the entire world.”
Lee said that “every indicator of relevance points to Texas economic growth: population trends, job creation, corporate expansions, relocations, exports, foreign direct investments. You name it, the message is clear, Texas is the place where businesses come to compete, to innovate, to thrive, while leaning into the pro-business climate. The next logical step is for Texas is to establish structurally sound capital markets.”
Also citing Texas’ GDP of $2.6 trillion and the eighth largest economy, he pointed out that 25 countries that are smaller than Texas have their own stock exchange.
“One in 10 public companies in the U.S. call Texas home. We now have more finance professionals in the state of Texas than there are in the state of New York,” Lee said. “With 170 colocation and enterprise data centers in Dallas alone, we now have the infrastructure necessary to operate national exchanges right here in Texas.”
The TXSE will be based in Dallas “as a national exchange offering global access for companies to list and trade their shares. We will provide access to exchange traded funds in a range of data services,” he said.
Many prominent business leaders and the largest financial institutions in the world are active investors, he said. “We’re proud to have earned the broadest base of support from across the worlds of business capital markets. Policy competition is at the core of what we’re doing. We’ve engaged with dozens of dozens of public companies to more fully understand their needs.
Lee said they would submit a registration with the SEC in the coming months. Pending approval, the TXSE will execute its first trades at the end of 2025 and launch listings in early 2026.
“With those first trades and listings, Dallas will become a new hub for capital markets in the United States,” Lee said. “The Texas Stock Exchange was 60 years in the making but it was [Gov. Abbott’s] leadership five years ago that truly brought the capital markets to our state.”
Abbott said the TXSE “will bring even more businesses to the state, which means more, good high paying jobs.” It will accelerate “an already red-hot economy in Texas” and “attract more business here, create more jobs here and cement Texas’ position as the best state for doing the business.”
TXSE Group Inc executive leadership team includes 22 professionals with decades of experience in market structure, regulation, and corporate governance from the public and private sectors. They include TXSE’s General Counsel, Jeffrey Brown, Charles Schwab’s former acting general counsel; Strategic Advisor, Richard Fisher, the 12th president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas; as well as the chairman of BlackRock, Mark McCombe, former SEC director, Brett Redfearn, former SEC commissioner Rick Roberts, among others.
