CHESS Replacement

A secure & contemporary replacement system using global standards.
Offering a better way to deliver market efficiencies and innovation opportunities.

Building core and contemporary infrastructure to advance Australia's reputation as a leading economy

ASX is replacing CHESS, its well-functioning but ageing clearing and settlement system, with enhanced technology that will create new opportunities for the Australian market. When it goes live, the new system will offer richer functionality, adopt global standards and use contemporary technology.

It will also provide the option of accessing distributed ledger technology (DLT), which will deliver information more efficiently and stimulate competition by enabling anyone to build new services.

ASX has a history of innovating and upgrading systemically important systems. It is part of what we do. We believe this new system - sitting on new infrastructure - will create a foundation for the next decade and beyond.

Latest updates

On 15 October, the CHESS Replacement newsletter was published for October 2021 and can be accessed here

On 13 October, ASX hosted a Software Provider Readiness webinar, presentation materials are available here.

On 11 October, ASX published Q&A generated in the Implementation & Transition working group which was held on 29 September 2021. The Q&A and presentation materials are available here.

On 30 September 2021, ASX published updates to technical documentation including documentation to support software provider testing and updates to the ASX procedure guidelines relating to corporate actions. The Guide to Testing Services and the Failover and Recovery Guide were also made available. Release notes providing full details can be found here .

On 29 September 2021, ASX published an information sheet outlining CHESS replacement system access pricing options for clearing and settlement participants, product issuer settlement participants (PISPs), share registries and payment providers.

On 27 September 2021, ASX published the last functional code release into the Customer Development Environment (CDE 10). The release introduces the updated design in CDE for netting and settlement business workflows, new functionality for DRP/BSP elections as well as new reports. Release notes providing full details can be found here.

An updated clearing and settlement system

ASX’s CHESS Replacement project will replace an existing, aged COBOL system, with a system built on Java and DAML – the Digital Asset Modelling Language – which has also been chosen by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) to standardise the OTC derivatives world.