Texas’ Abbott Touts Dallas Finance Hub as New Bourse Makes Hires

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said the upstart Texas Stock Exchange will help transform Dallas into the country’s top financial center and boost businesses’ access to capital.

“Dallas, Texas, is already a massive financial center, but when you put a stock exchange in there, that will make it really the financial heartbeat of the entire country,” Abbott said Tuesday in an interview. “It’s going to completely transform Dallas.”

Abbott, a Republican, said he’s working to change perceptions of the US financial landscape outside of New York, noting that Texas now has more people employed in financial services than the Empire State. He said the robust expansion of data centers over the past few years in Texas will help facilitate rapid transaction speeds once the exchange is operational.

Abbott spoke a day after meeting with officials from the new bourse, who announced hires from Charles Schwab Corp., Nasdaq Inc. and the New York Stock Exchange to build up its leadership team ahead of plans to begin operations next year. With the backing of BlackRock Inc., Citadel Securities and other investors, the Texas Stock Exchange has raised $135 million and plans to file registration documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the next few months, Chief Executive Officer James Lee said Monday.

The Texas governor said he had spoken with Elon Musk about the possibility of listing his closely held companies on the exchange, and received a positive reception.

“I think it is the kind of thing that is really up his alley,” Abbott said. “This really dovetails with the way Elon Musk does business.”

Musk, whose closely held companies include SpaceX, Neuralink and X, didn’t immediately return an email seeking comment.

Companies that list on the exchange won’t need to meet any environmental, social and governance thresholds, in line with a pledge to slash burdensome regulations for businesses, Lee said Monday. Abbott and the Texas Republican Party have been at the forefront of efforts by lawmakers to crack down on so-called ESG investment practices that take into consideration non-financial factors such as environmental risks.