Texas Stock Exchange takes its first primary ETF listings, with three fee tiers and paid quoting standards for lead market makers

The Texas Stock Exchange (TXSE) became a primary listing venue for exchange-traded funds on 16 September. Texas Capital’s Texas Equity Index ETF (TXS) and Texas Oil Index ETF (OILT) are TXSE’s “first primary listings”, having transferred from NYSE Arca. The funds’ trust had told shareholders in August that each fund’s principal US listing exchange would change from NYSE Arca to TXSE effective 16 September.

The more lasting change is how TXSE intends to pay for liquidity in the ETFs it lists. Instead of a single flat listing fee, its fee filing sets three tiers, and the exchange pays lead market makers (LMMs) a daily stipend only for the quoting standards they meet on each day.

Three tiers, eight standards

Under SR-TXSE-2026-027, an issuer chooses between a Signature tier at $100,000 a year, a Premier tier at $55,000 and a Core tier at $10,000. LMMs are paid “up to $278 per trading day for Signature Tier, up to $139 per trading day for Premier Tier, and $16 per trading day for Core Tier”.

Payment depends on eight Minimum Performance Standards, measured daily: maximum LMM spread, size within 25 basis points of the NBBO, layered depth, time at the NBBO, opening and closing auction depth, and how far each auction price lands from the pre-auction NBBO midpoint. For Signature and Premier, the LMM is paid for each standard it meets. Core is all or nothing: “For Core Tier, an LMM must be a Performant LMM in all applicable measurements.” The filing’s example is an LMM meeting four of eight standards, which earns “(4 / 8 ) * $278 = $139”. On Signature, the stipend for any standard missed is credited back to the issuer the following January, against its listing fees for that year.

The thresholds vary by asset class, and the issuer designates the class. For a Signature-tier US equity ETF, the filing sets:

• a 20 basis point maximum LMM spread;
• $45,000 on each side within 25 basis points of the NBBO;
• $90,000 a side of closing-auction interest within 50 basis points of the midpoint;
• a closing auction price within 25 basis points of the pre-auction midpoint.

The maximum spread is 15 basis points for fixed income and 100 basis points for the “Other” class, a catch-all for ETPs that do not fit the named categories, “including multi-asset, alternative, or novel strategies”.

During the launch, the standards are relaxed: “LMMs will be considered Performant LMMs for each trading day during the months of September and October as the Exchange begins offering ETP listings and rolls out the LMM Program.”

The case against cheap listings

The filing makes a case against its rivals’ pricing model. It puts annual fees for an ETF series at “Nasdaq - $4,000; BZX - $4,000-$9,000; and Arca - $8,500 - $30,000”. It says “ETP listing venues have been in a race to zero on listing fees for years”. Low fees, it says, fund liquidity programmes that “generally do not cover a market maker’s expenses for many ETPs”. It adds: “Issuers increasingly struggle to secure a lead market maker, and some products now launch without one.” By The Midpoint’s calculation, the Signature fee is 25 times Nasdaq’s $4,000.

TXSE also points to NYSE’s own ETP offer: “a minimum of $25,000 annually per ETP and paying out as much as $48,000 annually to market makers plus a one-time incentive for DMMs of up to $60,000”.

A second filing on 11 September, SR-TXSE-2026-030, repeats the fee and stipend proposal and adds a regulatory argument. FINRA Rule 5250 generally prohibits a FINRA member from accepting payment from an issuer for publishing a quotation or acting as a market maker. The filing says the programme “falls squarely within the FINRA Rule 5250(b)(3)” exception, which covers payments expressly provided for under an exchange’s rules for ETP market-maker incentive programmes. For 1940 Act products listed on TXSE, it says they are exempt from Regulation M Rule 102 under Rule 102(d)(4).

How new listings will open

Two earlier filings set how TXSE-listed ETFs begin trading and how the exchange’s liquidity incentives treat them:

• Opening. SR-TXSE-2026-024 lets a new ETP “commence trading at the beginning of the Pre-Market Session unless its issuer elects to have the security participate in an IPO Auction”. TXSE’s alerts for TXS and OILT and for Westwood’s PWRX, due on 17 September, each say “Trading will begin at 8:00 a.m. ET”. They add that TXSE-listed securities “will be quoted and printed to the SIAC Tape B data feed”.
• Rodeo programme. SR-TXSE-2026-021 adds exchange-traded funds to the symbol categories used to calculate the Enhanced Liquidity Symbol Multiplier in TXSE’s Rodeo programme. Under the programme, members that paid a prepayment fee receive warrants in parent company TXSE Group that vest as liquidity volume thresholds on the exchange are met. It runs from 1 September 2026 to 31 August 2027.

James H Lee, TXSE’s chairman and chief executive, said the two funds “mark the first of many transfers to TXSE from the other exchanges”.

Why it matters for desks

• Measured quoting. On TXSE-listed ETFs, the LMM’s spread, depth and auction obligations are published per asset class and measured daily, not left to a general quoting requirement.
• Auction quality is paid for. Two of the eight standards measure the closing auction’s depth and price, so auction quality becomes a paid obligation.
• Launch-period caveat. Because every LMM counts as performant through September and October, stipends in the first two months do not depend on meeting the standards, on our reading of the filing.

Added 1 Nov 2026 to the ETFs section; dated to the event, not published at the time.

Sources

• Texas Stock Exchange press release, 16 Sep 2026
• TXSE alert TXSE-2026-044, 15 Sep 2026
• TXSE alert TXSE-2026-045, 15 Sep 2026
• Texas Capital Funds Trust, Form 497 supplement, 20 Aug 2026 (SEC EDGAR)
• SR-TXSE-2026-027, 3 Sep 2026
• SR-TXSE-2026-030, 11 Sep 2026
• SR-TXSE-2026-024, 31 Aug 2026
• SR-TXSE-2026-021, 14 Aug 2026