ASX Fined A$20.5 million for Misleading Market Over CHESS Replacement Project | LeapRate
Australia’s Federal Court has ordered ASX Limited to pay a A$20.5 million penalty after the exchange operator admitted making a misleading statement about the progress of its CHESS replacement project.
The penalty follows ASX’s admission that a 10 February 2022 market announcement stating the project was “progressing well” was misleading.
Just six weeks later, ASX acknowledged there was a strong likelihood of delays, and by November 2022, the project had been paused entirely, with the exchange writing off approximately A$245–255 million in project costs.
Justice Markovic said ASX, as “a gatekeeper for preserving the integrity of, and confidence in, Australia’s financial system,” should have been “setting a benchmark for accuracy and transparency in its own market disclosures” and had “fallen short of those standards.”
ASX was also ordered to pay A$3 million toward the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s legal costs.
ASIC Chair Sarah Court said listed entities “must be accurate and transparent when updating the market on significant projects, particularly where delays and risks have the potential to affect confidence, investment and decision-making across the market,” adding that the responsibility is “even greater” for market operators.
The CHESS replacement project, which commenced in 2016–17 and was originally planned to go live in April 2023, aimed to replace ASX’s clearing and settlement system using distributed ledger technology. A revised two-stage solution saw clearing services go live in April 2026.
