ASX declares CHESS clearing services ready

ASX has confirmed CHESS Release 1 is ready for market open to provide clearing services. ASX is aiming to implement Release 2 of CHESS replacement in 2029.

ASX said all approved market operators (AMO) advised they successfully connected to the new system ahead of market open on Monday and added there had been "extensive testing" to ensure the readiness of the new system.

Outgoing ASX chief executive Helen Lofthouse said this marked an important milestone for the market operator.

"CHESS Release 1 offers clearing services on a modern platform that is designed to be sustainable, secure and resilient, and importantly, able to accommodate significantly higher trading volumes," Lofthouse said.

"The increased market volatility we've witnessed in the past few weeks highlights the importance of providing resilient infrastructure that can process increased volumes, and CHESS also has the ability to scale further when needed."

Lofthouse added Release 1 was a key step in the execution of the CHESS Project and technology modernisation strategy for ASX.

ASX acting group executive, securities and payments, Andrew Jones said while there were successful connections from CHESS users to the new clearing component prior to market open, the true test will come from meeting key milestones throughout the day such as trading, batch settlement and end-of-day processing.

"Our teams are closely monitoring for normal operation of clearing services and supporting CHESS users," Jones said.

Jones said the two-release approach should reduce delivery risk and will manage change impact across the industry.

"More broadly, how we reassessed the CHESS Project and how we've delivered Release 1 is a direct translation of our transformation strategy; elevating the importance of stakeholder engagement and building a modern technology stack that is sustainable, secure and resilient," Jones said.

The release of the first phase of CHESS comes after the ASX Inquiry Panel released a damning final report into the ASX, focusing on governance, capability and risk management frameworks and practices across the group.

The panel conducted more than 140 stakeholder interviews, reviewed submissions and an expert technical report of the CHESS system, undertook international benchmarking, held focus groups with ASX staff and reviewed over 10,000 documents.

The key observations of the final report were consistent with the interim report, and noted resilience of critical market infrastructure had been compromised to deliver high shareholder returns; governance arrangements failed to provide the necessary focus on critical market infrastructure; the ASX lacked the aspiration to be a steward of critical market infrastructure; and capability and cultural barriers were hindering transformational change.

In addition to the interim report's findings, the panel also observed ASX's risk management and compliance practices need to mature to become fit-for-purpose and embedded in business processes.

The report determined this contributed to ASX being overly reactive and tactical in its response to incidents and identified gaps.

The final report came after ASIC took the unprecedented step in June 2025 of commissioning the Inquiry into the ASX after years of persistent issues and operational failings.

In December 2025, the ASX made commitments to ASIC on a package of reforms, and in February 2026 submitted its Commitments Plan outlining how it would deliver those reforms.

Lofthouse, who announced in February she would be stepping down, has faced immense pressure over lengthy delays to the rollout of the CHESS system.

First announced in 2015, the new technology was originally supposed to be rolled out in April 2021 but faced successive year-long delays. In 2024, ASIC sued the ASX in the Federal Court over allegedly misleading statements related to the project.

One of Lofthouse's first calls as chief executive, when she took the top job in August 2022, was to dump that initial CHESS replacement project and start over.

However, throughout her tenure the ASX has also suffered several outages, most recently in December 2025, which also became the subject of an ASIC inquiry.