With the first calendar quarter of 2015 now in the books, the CSE is on pace to have another exceptional year. Through Q1 of 2015, the CSE has achieved a number of important milestones, implemented structural improvements and continued to attract interest from publicly listed companies looking to improve their cost of accessing capital.

The Q1 numbers also support the continued positive momentum: 20 listings, 62 financing deals and $42.3M raised. As good as they are, however, there’s more to story of Canada’s fastest growing securities exchange than just impressive numbers.

Recently, the CEO of the CSE, Richard Carleton, sat down with Peter Murray from Kiyoi Communications to provide a deeper discussion of the exchange’s achievements as well as the opportunities on the horizon for 2015. The full interview will be available in the next issue of the CSE Quarterly however here are some of the highlights.

Improving Connectivity to the CSE

Alongside the rapid growth in listings on the CSE has been growing retail investor interest in accessing the companies trading on the exchange. Over the past year, the CSE has worked with several of Canada’s major independent and bank-owned online brokerages to help them meet strong client demand to provide direct trading access on the CSE.

In Q1 two major bank-owned online brokerages, TD Direct Investing and BMO InvestorLine, enabled direct trading for their clients bringing the total number of online brokerages with direct trading access on the CSE to 13. With the addition of these significant bank-owned brokerages, clients of all major Canadian bank-owned brokerages can now trade CSE-listed securities conveniently via their online platforms.

Tracking the Pulse of Innovation

Another significant milestone achieved by the CSE this past quarter was the launch of the CSE Composite Index. As the Exchange for Entrepreneurs, the CSE is uniquely positioned to attract innovators looking to grow via the public markets. The diversity of industries and sectors represented by securities listed on the CSE was, in part, a driving force behind creating the CSE Composite Index. According to Carleton, “The index is an excellent measure of the development and growth of a broad cross-section of Canadian small-cap public companies.”

Staying a Step Ahead

In addition to the successes in broadening connectivity to and tracking of the exchange, the CSE undertook important steps to preserve the sustainability and integrity of the Canadian public markets landscape. The interview also covers in-depth the context behind the guidance issued on plans of arrangement and firms choosing to list via this option. An important theme of that discussion was that creating confidence for investors ultimately serves to benefit all marketplace stakeholders.

As crucibles of innovation, publicly traded markets are constantly evolving. And, while staying on top of this change is challenging enough, getting ahead of the curve is simply the reality all public market stakeholders need to embrace.  For the CSE, like many entrepreneurial firms, innovation, responsiveness and creativity are key to being able to keep pace with the speed of change.

Be sure to read the full interview to learn more about how the CSE views the current climate for small-cap stocks and listings, how the CSE is positioning itself to respond to the emerging trends in capital raising and why more and more companies are likely to continue joining the exchange.

To access the full interview, register for the CSE Quarterly mailing list here.