Equities trading and wholesale clearing platform OpenMarkets Group is understood to be in merger talks with ASX-listed broking platform SelfWealth.

Street Talk understands the companies, which have had a long-standing partnership in place, are in exclusive talks and due diligence has begun.

The news follows a recent shake up at the business, which resulted in a capital restructure, the resignation of former CEO Ivan Tchourilov last week and the company making 21 staff redundant. 

OpenMarkets already supplies SelfWealth with clearing, settlement and execution services and the pair signed a new three-year contract in 2020, which came into effect in 2021.

While the company is now understood to be in exclusive talks with SelfWealth - a tie-up fund manager sources were supportive of - it’s believed the company had also previously been in discussions with Stake.

No dotted lines have been signed yet, but signs point to both companies being motivated to get a deal done.

A merger would likely see OpenMarkets become an ASX-listed company, less than a year after it postponed its float plans.

More to come.

I could be wrong here this just looks like an industry race to the bottom here on brokerage. Pearler which is also CHESS sponsored has dropped their brokerage to $9.95 flat fees and offers some free ETF trades as a bonus. I note Selfwealth is probably positoning itself to capture the more active traders which would be more profitable given the increased trades. It also has a much better platform etc and use it personally as well. 

I wonder how many will take up and continue to US trades through Selfwealth given they charge brokerage etc, I am more than happy to have a second international only platform I use.

I'm not sure how successful their ETF actually is or how many subscribe to the premium service which I think is the attractive feature here. 

It is cash flow positive and well capitalised after the raise but think I'm happy to watch this one.