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 19 January, ASX hosted a Software Provider Readiness working group. The presentation materials are available here.

On 21 December, the CHESS Replacement newsletter was published for December 2021 and can be accessed here.

On 21 December, ASX published the Q&A generated in the Implementation & Transition working group held on 15 December. The Q&A and presentation materials are available here.

On 17 December, ASX published new technical documentation including the cutover and migration strategy, ITE2 application forms, ITE certificate management and additional documentation updates. The cutover and migration strategy provides software providers and CHESS users with the scope and approach for the migration of CHESS to the CHESS replacement system including the associated market dress rehearsals. All software providers and CHESS users should read this paper in advance of further engagement in Q1 2022. 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.