Nine US financial companies plan to start their own stock exchange

The leading stock exchanges in the US are about to face new competition.

A group of nine financial companies has announced plans to launch their own trading market, dubbed the Members Exchange, aiming to bypass the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq.

They said their goal is to reduce costs and simplify trading.

The plan is backed by firms that include Morgan Stanley, Fidelity Investment, UBS and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

The firms, which will own the new exchange collectively, said they would file papers for the new exchange with the

US market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission, early this year.

Approval is not expected until at least 2020.