RJ O’Brien, the largest independent futures broker in the US, has won regulatory permission to launch its first subsidiary in Canada.

RJ O’Brien & Associates Canada will open in Winnipeg, having gained membership of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada on February 4.

The new subsidiary’s chief executive and president will be Robert Dzisiak, a former chairman of the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange before it was bought by Intercontinental Exchange.

“We are ready to begin building our client base here, and we are committed to meeting the risk management and investment needs of institutional, individual and commercial Canadian clients,” Dzisiak said in a statement.

The Chicago-based brokerage’s chief executive Gerry Corcoran said: “We are very pleased to have approval to expand our current offering into Canada as part of our initiative to build our business globally.”

Yesterday RJO announced a partnership under which the London-based brokerage Sucden Financial will execute orders for it on the London Metal Exchange.

Dzisiak told Futures and Options Intelligence that the “underserviced” Canadian market had long been a target for the firm. Its large agricultural sector requires risk management and hedging services, complementing what he called RJO’s strength in the asset class.

Dzisiak said RJO Canada would begin immediately by offering “full service, broker-assisted trading and risk management services,” with online trading added “in due course”.

RJO will not add to its exchange memberships to service its new Canadian clients. It is already a member of CME Group, Intercontinental Exchange, NYSE Liffe and the Chicago Climate Exchange.

The new subsidiary’s management team is complete but it will try to expand its retail brokerage side.

Colin Packham cpackham@fow.com