New York Stock Exchange opens Texas headquarters in latest nod to Y’all Street

The New York Stock Exchange has opened a new regional headquarters in Dallas, joining Wall Street’s expedition to the financial ​boomtown known as Y’all Street.

A number of large companies are relocating their headquarters to Texas, drawn ‌by lower taxes, business-friendly regulations ‌and a growing talent pool. 

The NYSE said on Thursday that Texas Governor Greg Abbott was scheduled to ring the NYSE Texas closing bell at the offices on ​a live broadcast. 

“The establishment of NYSE Texas reflects our deep commitment to the businesses and leaders driving the robust Texas economy forward,” said Lynn Martin, president of NYSE Group, part of global ​exchange operator Intercontinental Exchange.

The NYSE says NYSE Texas has 120 listed securities issuers and describes it as the “first securities exchange to ​be incorporated in Texas.” Nasdaq, the NYSE’s longtime rival, also operates a Texas exchange and ​earlier this summer captured a coveted dual listing when Elon Musk’s SpaceX opted to launch trading on both exchanges following its IPO.

The signal moment in Dallas’ rise as a financial center likely came with the launch last month of another rival to the NYSE, the Texas Stock Exchange. The real test will be whether the new Texas-focused exchanges succeed in capturing IPO activity or, for TXSE, whether it is able to convince existing companies to switch their primary listings to the startup. 

Texas Capital Bank, a unit of Texas Capital Bancshares, said this month it would relist two ETFs currently on NYSE Arca on the Texas Stock Exchange, making those its first two listings. The bank asserts on a web page publicizing the city’s financial sector that Dallas boasts “the largest concentration of financial services workers in the U.S., outside of New York.”

“The term ‘Y’all Street’ has emerged organically in recent years, capturing the unique convergence of Southern hospitality and financial innovation,” the Texas Capital Bank site says. “It refers to the financial corridor in Dallas that includes Downtown, Victory Park ​and Uptown.”

A pair of U.S. banking regulators announced on Thursday they ​had finalized rules that set formal definitions ‌for “unsafe and unsound” practices ‌by banks, giving examiners firm guidelines for how to police lenders.

The Office of the Comptroller ​of the Currency and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation finalized the rules, which they had ​first proposed in October, marking the first time a bank regulator formally defined ​what actions government examiners should consider improper.

The agencies ​said in a joint statement the new definitions will provide “clarity and certainty” in bank examinations, and come as the Trump administration works to overhaul how the government polices banks.

The Federal Reserve, which shares responsibility for supervising banks and oversees some of the nation’s largest institutions, has yet to issue its own proposal defining such activities.

As part of the supervision overhaul, regulatory heads have argued that examiners need to refocus on core financial risks at banks, contending that examiners have become overly focused on dinging banks for minor issues.