$7 Billion Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) Proposes to Pay $16.7 Million in Fine & Investigation Costs and Has Admitted Misleading Statement on Progress of CHESS Replacement Project in 2022 Which Exposed Market Participants to Risk of Financial Harm
15th June 2026 | Hong Kong
Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) with $7 billion market value will propose to pay $16.7 million (AUD 23.5 million) in fine & investigation costs, and has admitted misleading statement on progress of CHESS replacement project in 2022 which exposed market participants to risk of financial harm. Australia ASIC (15/6/26): “ASX Limited (ASX) has admitted that its 10 February 2022 market announcement which stated that the CHESS replacement project was “progressing well” was misleading and exposed market participants to the risk of financial harm. ASIC and ASX will ask the Federal Court to find that ASX contravened the law, impose a penalty of $20.5 million, and order ASX to pay $3 million towards ASIC’s costs. The proposed resolution is subject to the approval of the Federal Court. It is a matter for the Court to determine whether the proposed orders are appropriate and whether any other orders should be made … … ASX has admitted that: as at 21 December 2021 the CHESS replacement project was not on its critical path to ‘go live’ in April 2023 and needed to return to it between then and the 10 February 2022 announcement, the project was internally classified ‘red’, indicating significant unresolved issues or risks, and industry test environments had opened, and were planned to open, with reduced scope and performance, while timelines for incomplete work had been pushed out. Despite this, ASX told the market on 10 February 2022 that the project was “progressing well”, a statement it now admits was misleading. About six weeks later, on 28 March 2022, ASX announced there was a strong likelihood the project’s go-live date would be delayed. It later paused the project and derecognised pre-tax project costs of approximately $245–255 million. ASIC Chair Sarah Court said ASX’s statement risked undermining confidence in Australia’s financial markets. Since these events, ASIC has obtained commitments from ASX to strengthen oversight, governance and delivery of the CHESS replacement program. Those measures are intended to support confidence in the operation and future development of Australia’s critical market infrastructure. It is a matter for the Federal Court to determine whether the proposed orders are appropriate and to make other orders. ASIC will issue a further media release when orders are made. Background – On 13 August 2024, ASIC commenced civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court against ASX alleging it made misleading statements about the CHESS replacement project in market announcements (24-177MR). ASX has admitted that, by making the misleading statement that the CHESS replacement project was ‘progressing well’, it contravened sections 12DA and 12DB(1)(a) and (e) of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 (Cth). The CHESS replacement project was a critical infrastructure program for the development of a system to replace the Clearing House Electronic Subregister System (CHESS) operated by ASX, with a new system using distributed ledger technology. ASX commenced the project in 2016-17 and planned for it to ‘go live’ in April 2023. On 28 March 2022, about six weeks after telling the market the project was “progressing well”, ASX announced there was a strong likelihood the project would be delayed. On 17 November 2022, ASX paused the project and derecognised approximately $245-$255 million (pre-tax) in its own project costs … … In November 2023, ASX announced a new CHESS replacement solution would be delivered in two releases, with clearing services in Release 1 and settlement and subregister services in Release 2. Release 1 went live on 20 April 2026.” In 2026 May, Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) appointed ASX Group Executive for Markets & Listings and ex-Morgan Stanley 23-year veteran Darren Yip as interim CEO (29/5/26) to succeed Helen Lofthouse who is departing. Darren Yip Joined ASX in 2023 March, and was Morgan Stanley Co-Head of Prime Brokerage & Head of Delta One Structured Products. ASX current market value at $8.7 billion, share price +19.7% YTD, +13.9% last 12 months & +15.7% last 5 years. In 2026 February, Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) appointed 7 members to the new ASX Advisory Group on Corporate Governance (AGCG or Advisory Group) Chaired by ex-Australia Central Bank Governor (Reserve Bank of Australia, RBA) Dr Philip Lowe. The 7 new members are Brunswick Group Partner Pru Bennett, TelstraSuper Head of Equities Dominique d’Avrincour, AustralianSuper CIO & Deputy Chief Executive Mark Delaney, Rio Tinto Company Secretary Tim Paine, Australian Retirement Trust Chair Helen Rowell, Company Secretary (Nomura Research Institute Australia-Listed Subsidiaries, APM Group, Veem & Volt Group) Peter Torre & Board Member (Viva Energy, Sonic Healthcare, MetLife Australia, Clean Energy Finance Corp & UNSW Foundation) Nicola Wakefield Evans. In 2025 November, the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) hired Norton Rose Fulbright & ex-Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) Lucinda McCann as Chief Compliance Officer, succeeding Daniel Moran who resigned in 2025 July after 15 years at ASX. Lucinda McCann has 25 years experience including as General Counsel at Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), General Counsel at AMP Limited and at law firms Norton Rose Fulbright, Henry Davis York & Mallesons Stephen Jaques. In 2025 December, the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) company announcement system was down on 1st December 2025 affecting listed companies announcements, resulting in around 80 company stocks placed on trading halt due to material information requiring company announcement. In 2025 January, Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) committed AUD 1 million ($630,000) credit to settlement clients for disruption of ASX Batch Settlement on 20th December 2024, and ASX CEO Helen Lofthouse sending a personal letter to customers to apologise. The error was traced to a memory allocation logic introduced in 2014 for CHESS Batch Settlement.
“ $7 Billion Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) Proposes to Pay $16.7 Million in Fine & Investigation Costs and Has Admitted Misleading Statement on Progress of CHESS Replacement Project in 2022 Which Exposed Market Participants to Risk of Financial Harm “
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Note:
At a hearing on 15 June 2026, Justice Markovic listed the matter for a half-day hearing on final orders and penalty on 1 July 2026 at 10:15am.
$8.7 Billion Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) Appoints Group Executive for Markets & Listings and ex-Morgan Stanley 23-Year Veteran Darren Yip as Interim CEO (29/5/26) to Succeed Helen Lofthouse Who is Departing, Darren Yip Joined ASX in 2023 March & was Morgan Stanley Co-Head of Prime Brokerage & Head of Delta One Structured Products, ASX Current Market Value at $8.7 Billion, Share Price +19.7% YTD, +13.9% Last 12 Months & +15.7% Last 5 Years
2nd May 2026 – Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) with $8.7 billion market value has appointed ASX Group Executive for Markets & Listings and ex-Morgan Stanley 23-year veteran Darren Yip as interim CEO (29/5/26) to succeed Helen Lofthouse who is departing. Darren Yip Joined ASX in 2023 March, and was Morgan Stanley Co-Head of Prime Brokerage & Head of Delta One Structured Products. ASX current market value at $8.7 billion, share price +19.7% YTD, +13.9% last 12 months & +15.7% last 5 years. In 2026 February, Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) appointed 7 members to the new ASX Advisory Group on Corporate Governance (AGCG or Advisory Group) Chaired by ex-Australia Central Bank Governor (Reserve Bank of Australia, RBA) Dr Philip Lowe. The 7 new members are Brunswick Group Partner Pru Bennett, TelstraSuper Head of Equities Dominique d’Avrincour, AustralianSuper CIO & Deputy Chief Executive Mark Delaney, Rio Tinto Company Secretary Tim Paine, Australian Retirement Trust Chair Helen Rowell, Company Secretary (Nomura Research Institute Australia-Listed Subsidiaries, APM Group, Veem & Volt Group) Peter Torre & Board Member (Viva Energy, Sonic Healthcare, MetLife Australia, Clean Energy Finance Corp & UNSW Foundation) Nicola Wakefield Evans. In 2025 November, the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) hired Norton Rose Fulbright & ex-Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) Lucinda McCann as Chief Compliance Officer, succeeding Daniel Moran who resigned in 2025 July after 15 years at ASX. Lucinda McCann has 25 years experience including as General Counsel at Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), General Counsel at AMP Limited and at law firms Norton Rose Fulbright, Henry Davis York & Mallesons Stephen Jaques. In 2025 December, the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) company announcement system was down on 1st December 2025 affecting listed companies announcements, resulting in around 80 company stocks placed on trading halt due to material information requiring company announcement. In 2025 January, Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) committed AUD 1 million ($630,000) credit to settlement clients for disruption of ASX Batch Settlement on 20th December 2024, and ASX CEO Helen Lofthouse sending a personal letter to customers to apologise. The error was traced to a memory allocation logic introduced in 2014 for CHESS Batch Settlement.
Darren Yip, ASX Group Executive, Markets and Listings – Darren Yip was appointed Group Executive, Markets in March 2023. In this role, Darren leads the Markets team which is responsible for ASX’s cash and derivatives trading including equities, interest rates, commodities and energy products, benchmarks business, and derivatives and OTC clearing. In June 2025, Darren assumed responsibility of ASX’s Listings business, leading the team responsible for the origination of listed primary and secondary equity, and investment products. He is a highly-skilled executive who brings more than 20-years’ experience in global financial markets with a background in prime brokerage and equity markets. Having spent 12 years leading teams in the Asia Pacific from his base in Hong Kong, Darren was most recently with Morgan Stanley as Managing Director and Co-Head of Prime Brokerage from 2013 to 2021. Prior to that, Darren was Morgan Stanley’s Head of Delta One Structured Products where he led a team providing local access to Asia Pacific equity markets through OTC derivative products.
Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) Appoints 7 Members to New Advisory Group on Corporate Governance (AGCG or Advisory Group) Chaired by ex-Australia Central Bank Governor (Reserve Bank of Australia, RBA) Dr Philip Lowe, 7 Members are Brunswick Group Partner Pru Bennett, TelstraSuper Head of Equities Dominique d’Avrincour, AustralianSuper CIO & Deputy Chief Executive Mark Delaney, Rio Tinto Company Secretary Tim Paine, Australian Retirement Trust Chair Helen Rowell, Company Secretary (Nomura Research Institute Australia-Listed Subsidiaries, APM Group, Veem & Volt Group) Peter Torre & Board Member (Viva Energy, Sonic Healthcare, MetLife Australia, Clean Energy Finance Corp & UNSW Foundation) Nicola Wakefield Evans
1st February – Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) has appointed 7 members to the new ASX Advisory Group on Corporate Governance (AGCG or Advisory Group) Chaired by ex-Australia Central Bank Governor (Reserve Bank of Australia, RBA) Dr Philip Lowe. The 7 new members are Brunswick Group Partner Pru Bennett, TelstraSuper Head of Equities Dominique d’Avrincour, AustralianSuper CIO & Deputy Chief Executive Mark Delaney, Rio Tinto Company Secretary Tim Paine, Australian Retirement Trust Chair Helen Rowell, Company Secretary (Nomura Research Institute Australia-Listed Subsidiaries, APM Group, Veem & Volt Group) Peter Torre & Board Member (Viva Energy, Sonic Healthcare, MetLife Australia, Clean Energy Finance Corp & UNSW Foundation) Nicola Wakefield Evans. In 2025 November, the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) hired Norton Rose Fulbright & ex-Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) Lucinda McCann as Chief Compliance Officer, succeeding Daniel Moran who resigned in 2025 July after 15 years at ASX. Lucinda McCann has 25 years experience including as General Counsel at Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), General Counsel at AMP Limited and at law firms Norton Rose Fulbright, Henry Davis York & Mallesons Stephen Jaques. In 2025 December, the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) company announcement system was down on 1st December 2025 affecting listed companies announcements, resulting in around 80 company stocks placed on trading halt due to material information requiring company announcement. In 2025 January, Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) committed AUD 1 million ($630,000) credit to settlement clients for disruption of ASX Batch Settlement on 20th December 2024, and ASX CEO Helen Lofthouse sending a personal letter to customers to apologise. The error was traced to a memory allocation logic introduced in 2014 for CHESS Batch Settlement.
Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) Hires Norton Rose Fulbright & ex-Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) Lucinda McCann as Chief Compliance Officer Succeeding Daniel Moran Who Resigned in 2025 July after 15 Years at ASX, 25 Years Experience Including as General Counsel at Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), General Counsel at AMP Limited and at Law Firms Norton Rose Fulbright, Henry Davis York & Mallesons Stephen Jaques
11th November – The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) has hired Norton Rose Fulbright & ex-Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) Lucinda McCann as Chief Compliance Officer, succeeding Daniel Moran who resigned in 2025 July after 15 years at ASX. Lucinda McCann has 25 years experience including as General Counsel at Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), General Counsel at AMP Limited and at law firms Norton Rose Fulbright, Henry Davis York & Mallesons Stephen Jaques. Announcement (11/11/25): “ASX has today announced the appointment of Lucinda McCann as Chief Compliance Officer, reporting directly to CEO Helen Lofthouse. Ms McCann brings a wealth of experience to the role, including five years at the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA). At APRA, Ms McCann rose to the position of Chief General Counsel where she led the legal and enforcement group, supporting supervision of Australia’s banking, insurance and superannuation sectors. Her prior roles at APRA included serving as Deputy General Counsel and General Manager, Legal. Ms McCann will join ASX from international law firm Norton Rose Fulbright, where she is a Partner in the corporate team … … Ms McCann succeeds former Chief Compliance Officer Daniel Moran who announced he was resigning from the role in July after a successful 15-year career at ASX.” In 2025 June, the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) launched an inquiry into Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) focusing on governance, capability & risk management frameworks & practices, with ongoing concerns of ASX ability to maintain stable, secure & resilient critical market infrastructure. In 2025 January, Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) committed AUD 1 million ($630,000) credit to settlement clients for disruption of ASX Batch Settlement on 20th December 2024, and ASX CEO Helen Lofthouse sending a personal letter to customers to apologise. The error was traced to a memory allocation logic introduced in 2014 for CHESS Batch Settlement.
ASX CEO Helen Lofthouse: “I am delighted that Lucinda is joining ASX at a time when we have been deepening our focus and leadership on policy matters in support of the vibrant public listed market which is so important to Australia’s economy. I am looking forward to Lucinda … … Lucinda’s appointment will build on the strong track record of our ASX Compliance team who are tasked with the specialist role of monitoring and enforcing compliance by listed entities and issuers of investment products with ASX’s rules. I am confident she will further strengthen our efforts to uphold high standards of market conduct.”
Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) Launches Inquiry into Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) Focusing on Governance, Capability & Risk Management Frameworks & Practices, Ongoing Concerns of ASX Ability to Maintain Stable, Secure & Resilient Critical Market Infrastructure, Disruption of ASX Batch Settlement on 20th December 2024 with Error Traced to Memory Allocation Logic Introduced in 2014 for CHESS Batch Settlement, Committed AUD 1 Million ($630,000) Credit to Settlement Clients in 2025 January, ASX CEO Helen Lofthouse Sent Personal Letter to Apologise
16th June – The Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) has launched an inquiry into Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) focusing on governance, capability & risk management frameworks & practices, with ongoing concerns of ASX ability to maintain stable, secure & resilient critical market infrastructure. In 2025 January, Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) committed AUD 1 million ($630,000) credit to settlement clients for disruption of ASX Batch Settlement on 20th December 2024, and ASX CEO Helen Lofthouse sending a personal letter to customers to apologise. The error was traced to a memory allocation logic introduced in 2014 for CHESS Batch Settlement. ASIC (16/6/25): “ASIC today announced an Inquiry into Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) group, focusing on governance, capability and risk management frameworks and practices across the group. ASX plays a critical role in Australia’s financial markets. ASIC and the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) have ongoing concerns over ASX’s ability to maintain stable, secure and resilient critical market infrastructure. ASIC’s Inquiry will be led by an expert panel that will make recommendations to address any identified shortcomings or deficiencies. ASIC will publish a report of the outcome of the Inquiry, which will inform the next steps it may take … … ASIC will discontinue its investigation of the 20 December 2024 CHESS Batch Settlement failure. Consideration of this incident will form part of the broader Inquiry. While this Inquiry is underway, it is critical ASX continues to prioritise the safe and efficient operation of its infrastructure, including progress towards Release 1 of the CHESS replacement project in mid-2026.” More info below:
Background
- ASIC will conduct the Inquiry using existing powers under Section 794C and 823C of the Corporations Act 2001 to assess how well ASX is complying with its obligations as a market licensee and a Clearing and Settlement facility licensee.
- The Inquiry may also use the additional powers received through the Treasury Laws Amendment (Financial Market Infrastructure and Other Measures) Act 2024.
- The Inquiry panel will be asked to examine the frameworks and practices in relation to governance, capability, and risk management within ASX group.
- The composition of the expert panel will be announced in the coming weeks.
- The panel will be supported by an ASIC Secretariat, which is expected to include secondees from RBA, Australian Prudential Regulation Authority as well as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
- Full details can be found in the Inquiry’s Terms of Reference.
- The RBA and ASIC are co-regulators of licensed Clearing and Settlement (CS) facilities and have separate, but complementary, responsibilities for the licensing and supervision of CS facilities licensees.
- In March 2025, in a joint letter to the ASX, ASIC and RBA expressed increasing concern over the management of operational risk, following the CHESS batch settlement failure incident that occurred on 20 Dec. The expert technical review of CHESS, that ASIC announced on 31 March, will continue alongside the Inquiry.
Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) Commits AUD 1 Million ($630,000) Credit to Settlement Clients for Disruption of ASX Batch Settlement on 20th December 2024, ASX CEO Helen Lofthouse Sending a Personal Letter to Apologise, Error Traced to Memory Allocation Logic Introduced in 2014 for CHESS Batch Settlement
26th January 2025 – Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) has committed AUD 1 million ($630,000) credit to settlement clients for disruption of ASX Batch Settlement on 20th December 2024, and ASX CEO Helen Lofthouse sending a personal letter to customers to apologise. The error was traced to a memory allocation logic introduced in 2014 for CHESS Batch Settlement. ASX (23/1/25): “ASX has today released an incident review to assist customers and stakeholders with a more detailed understanding of the CHESS Batch Settlement incident that occurred on Friday 20 December 2024. This includes an overview of how the incident unfolded, root cause analysis, steps taken to prevent reoccurrence, and a preliminary action plan that ensures the ongoing stability of CHESS and identifying opportunities for improvement in our incident management protocols. The incident resulted in Batch Settlement for Friday 20 December 2024 having to be rescheduled to the following business day, Monday 23 December 2024. The root cause of the incident arose from a combination of events but is isolated to an area of CHESS that calculates memory allocation for the settlement processes. Trading and Clearing services were unaffected on Friday and the market opened without issue on the following Monday. There were specific circumstances in December 2024 that triggered the incident but the root cause can be traced back to an error that was introduced in 2014 to the memory allocation logic which resulted in the Batch Settlement process not being able to complete. The nature of this issue and how it arose was highly irregular and there is no record of previous incidents caused by this part of the system, or of CHESS not completing Batch Settlement on a designated settlement day. ASX Managing Director and CEO Helen Lofthouse sent a personal letter to customers today apologising once again for the incident and committed a $1 million credit to settlement participants in acknowledgement of the disruption. Details of this customer rebate can be found in the final section of the Incident Review. The Incident Review and the CEO letter to customers can be accessed on ASX’s website. Echoing the sentiment in her letter to customers, Ms Lofthouse said: “Not being able to complete Batch Settlement is unprecedented and we fully appreciate the seriousness of this matter. While the incident was successfully resolved such that the market could open normally on the next business day, this does not meet the high operating standards expected of ASX and which we expect of ourselves. “I wanted to write to customers directly to once again apologise for the incident and to assure them that we’ve taken steps to fix the issue and prevent reoccurrence. We’ve also outlined the current action plan that considers any further technical reviews and potential incident management protocols including how we engage stakeholders.” The release of today’s Incident Review underscores ASX’s continued commitment to transparency. We continue to update our regulatory agencies on this matter and further engagement with participants is planned as part of our post incident review actions.” More info below:
Incident – On Friday 20 December 2024 Batch Settlement could not proceed because a critical step in the settlement process generated an error that prevented completion. ASX was not able to resolve the error before the relevant cut-off time on Friday and therefore rescheduled settlement obligations to the following Business Day, Monday 23 December 2024. A single Batch Settlement occurred on 23 December 2024, including trades executed on 18 December 2024 (the trades which had been rescheduled), and trades executed on 19 December 2024 which settled in the ordinary course of the T+2 settlement cycle. The process to reschedule CHESS transactions is standard CHESS functionality, albeit usually carried out on a much smaller scale, and was completed without incident. ASX had identified a possible workaround late on Friday afternoon, however investigations over the weekend allowed ASX to identify the cause of the error in the CHESS code, and a fix was developed, tested and implemented on Sunday 22 December 2024. CHESS became available at the usual time on Monday 23 December 2024 and Batch Settlement commenced at 12:30pm, one hour later than usual (following Participant requests for an extension), successfully completing at 1:08pm the same day. Since the error only affected Batch Settlement, trading and related clearing continued as normal on Friday 20 December 2024 and the market opened without issue on Monday 23 December 2024. On Friday 20 December 2024, shortly following the commencement of Batch Settlement, ASX system monitoring detected an issue with the Batch Settlement process. Initial investigations by ASX engineers confirmed an error was preventing the process from completing and communications were issued at 12:05pm notifying users that Batch Settlement would be delayed. This information was published to the ASX System Status Page (System Status Page) and directly issued to users via email.
Background – For cash equities settlement in Australia, settlement occurs on a T+2 basis—that is, two Business Days after a trade is executed. The CHESS system facilitates the transfer of legal ownership of the cash market products and coordinates the simultaneous exchange of funds between Participants and their respective banks. CHESS employs a batch settlement process which involves the netting of all buy and sell transactions per security for each Participant for a given day. Each Business Day, Batch Settlement typically begins at 11:30am. During this process, ASX calculates each Participant’s net funding and securities delivery obligations, and the aggregated net funds positions of all participating financial institutions (payment providers). ASX then uses multilateral netting to settle both novated (i.e. market trades) and non-novated trades.
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