Bloomberg reports that TSX Group is seeking an alliance with Nymex, CME for Toronto Stock Exchange:

TSX Group Inc., owner of the Toronto Stock Exchange, may seek an alliance with a U.S.-based futures exchange such as the New York Mercantile Exchange, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange or Intercontinental Exchange Inc.

“There will be about three or four exchanges across multi- asset classes in North America, and we plan to be one of them,” TSX Group Chief Executive Officer Richard Nesbitt said today in an interview in Toronto. “So we do keep in touch with the people at Nymex, but also the people at the ICE and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.”

Nesbitt declined to provide specific information about his contacts with officials from the other exchanges, which trade energy, agricultural commodities and financial futures.

Nymex, the world’s largest energy market, trades benchmark U.S. crude oil and natural gas futures contracts. Its biggest rival in energy trading is Intercontinental, owner of ICE Futures, the former International Petroleum Exchange, which controls trading of Brent crude oil contracts in London. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange is the biggest U.S. futures market.