(Reuters) - A group of financial services firms, including Morgan Stanley, Fidelity Investments and Citadel Securities LLC, have agreed to jointly launch a new low-cost bourse that will rival Intercontinental Exchange Inc's the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Inc, the companies said in a joint statement on Monday.

The companies will create the new venture called Members Exchange (or MEMX) and will be funded and controlled by nine institutions, including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Charles Schwab, E*TRADE Financial Corp, TD Ameritrade, UBS and Virtu Financial.

MEMX will file an application seeking approval to operate as a national securities exchange with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in early 2019, according to the statement.

(Reporting by Diptendu Lahiri in Bengaluru; Editing by James Emmanuel)

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