SYDNEY: The Australian Securities Exchange’s (ASX) technology turnaround plan, touted by the firm’s chair as being too important to fail, is facing questions from investors and market participants after it was hit by a fresh outage this week, the latest in a string of failures.
About 80 companies with price-sensitive disclosures were placed in a trading halt on Monday after the ASX’s announcement platform collapsed, leaving hundreds of statements unable to be published.
The disruption highlighted reputational risks for ASX as it struggles to overhaul aging systems.
The failure has raised questions about governance and operational resilience, issues that investors said are critical for maintaining market integrity.
“It was, frankly, embarrassing, especially after the number of incidents they faced over the last 12 months,” said Omkar Joshi, Opal Capital founder, an ASX market participant.
“The reality is since we’re still seeing continued issues coming up, I think it’s very hard to say that they have actually succeeded in delivering anything just yet.
“But that doesn’t mean they can’t turn it around – but there is a fair bit of work to do.”
The ASX said in a statement that Monday’s outage, which was gradually restored during the trading session, was “related to a software deployment for a security upgrade”.
“We are sorry for the disruption this caused and we have been following up with all affected companies to offer any further support and to listen and learn,” the statement said.
The ASX said it would also provide an incident report to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (Asic).
The blunder was the latest misstep for ASX, which is already under investigation by the regulator.
Asic has questioned the ASX’s ability to provide secure and resilient critical market infrastructure.
ASX chair David Clarke told the company’s annual meeting in October a major turnaround plan to upgrade the exchange’s technology could not afford to fail.
But less than two months on, investors are wary if the ASX will be able to deliver on its promise to ease the regulatory burden the company is facing.
“The outage is clearly disappointing and is probably just a continuation of some of the problems they’ve had in the past that they’re yet to get right,” said Sean Sequeira, chief investment officer at Australian Eagle Asset Management, an ASX investor.
“There’s a technology issue. It’s not a case of whether they’ll turn it around, it’s whether they’ll turn it around in an acceptable amount of time,” he said.
The ASX’s failed upgrade of its settlement system dates back more than nine years, and the exchange is being sued by Asic for making misleading statements on technological progress during that time.
A new clearing system will run on more advanced technology, replacing a three-decades-old system known as the Clearing House Electronic Subregister System, which collapsed in 2024, stopping settlement of trades for a day.
The first phase of the new system is due in the first half of 2026. Investors are banking on the upgrade to help ASX’s flagging fortunes.
“Moving cash market clearing to a new platform de-risks part of ASX’s infrastructure and should allow ASX to demonstrate to regulators that it is strengthening operational resilience,” said Greig Barrow, a portfolio manager at Akambo, an ASX investor.
The upgrade is expected to cost up to A$445mil (US$293mil), which comes after the ASX made a A$250mil writedown as it dumped its plan to replace its existing settlement system with blockchain technology. — Reuters
