TSX Group Inc. has hired a Bank of Montreal executive as part of a major push to transform the Toronto-based stock market operator into a Canada-wide financial market.

The new executive is Richard Nadeau, 45, BMO's former vice-president of corporate finance for Eastern Canada. He will become senior vice-president of the TSX Group, based in Montreal.

Richard Nesbitt, chief executive officer of the TSX Group, said Nadeau's appointment marks a major step in the evolution of the TSX Group into a national market that will handle stocks, bonds, energy contracts and eventually financial derivatives.

3-month trading

"We now have a greater and more effective presence in Montreal than at any time in our history," he said. "We look forward to tapping Richard's energy and leveraging his 20 years of experience in the financial industry to grow our listing business both domestically and abroad," Nesbitt said.

The Montreal Exchange has a Canadian monopoly on trading in financial derivatives under an agreement which expires in 2009. Nesbitt has made it clear that TSX Group intends to enter the derivatives market at that time.

In addition to the Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX Group owns the TSX Venture Exchange for junior companies and the Calgary-based NGX for natural gas and electricity trading, as well as 45 per cent of the CanDeal institutional bond-trading market.

Commodities are handled by the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange.

TSX Group (TSX:X)shares closed up 30 cents at $48.20 on the Toronto Stock Exchange, up from less than $30 a year ago.