The Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada said Monday it has reached an agreement with the TMX Group Inc. to use IIROC’s Surveillance Technology Enhancement Platform (STEP) in providing single-market monitoring services to the Toronto Stock Exchange and TSX Venture Exchange, effective April 1.

As a result, IIROC will now provide all monitoring services to equity marketplaces in Canada using one platform, STEP, which it created and launched in 2010. IIROC currently uses this platform to perform single-market monitoring for equity marketplaces in Canada (of which there are now 11), as well as for monitoring of equity trading across multiple markets.

“Using a single surveillance system allows for enhanced quality of surveillance, as well as significant annual savings that will benefit all market participants — issuers, intermediaries and investors,” says Susan Wolburgh Jenah, IIROC president and CEO.

IIROC created STEP to keep pace with a dramatic increase in the speed and volume of trading and to deliver IIROC the capacity for consolidated surveillance of multiple marketplaces. STEP also enables the SRO to conduct detailed post-trade research to allow it to better analyze market developments in a rapidly evolving trading environment.

Previously, IIROC used TMX Group’s SMARS system to perform single-market surveillance for the TSX and TSXV, which have the largest share of equity trading in Canada.

The transition is subject to the approval of the agreement by the Canadian Securities Administrators.