The University of British Columbia Faculty of Law and TSX Group Inc. announced on Monday the establishment of the “TSX Capital Markets Initiative at the University of British Columbia, Faculty of Law” within the UBC National Centre for Business Law. TSX Group will become a national gold affiliate member of the centre for five years.

TSX Group is contributing $250,000 to this initiative, payable over the next five years. UBC will use the funds to support capital markets research and policy initiatives through the UBC initiative and UBC’s participation in a planned national council, which would include universities from across Canada.

UBC will also host an annual lecture that will include the dissemination of research findings generated by the UBC Initiative and UBC will organize an annual public policy forum in consultation with the other academic members in the national council.

“The Faculty of Law is very excited about the new National Centre for Business Law and this initiative with the TSX,” said Dean Mary Anne Bobinski. “This contribution makes it possible for the National Centre for Business Law to engage in timely and relevant capital markets research and provide a forum to engage the business and legal community in exciting policy discussion.”

Added Richard Nesbitt, CEO of the TSX Group: “We see this initiative helping to enhance our reputation as an industry leader and allow us to increase our presence in western Canada. We hope the research findings will help further provide leadership in capital markets and provide a forum for discussion and debate of major issues facing the industry in the future.”

The National Centre for Business Law will focus on cutting-edge, comparative, interdisciplinary and empirical research in business law. Its mission is to develop a world-class national centre for business law scholarship and teaching, and create a place where challenging ideas are engaged in an honest and open forum to advance the development of business law policy, appropriate for a leading market economy. The faculty has also reviewed and strengthened the business law curriculum, and commencing this September will offer a “concentration” in business law.