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 4 December 2020, ASX published an information paper on data governance for CHESS and CHESS replacement. The paper explains ASX’s data governance arrangements for CHESS which will continue to apply under the new system, with only limited updates to the data that is received and how it is managed under the replacement system. Since the paper explains ASX’s approach to data governance under CHESS generally, it is relevant to Day 1 functionality, the release 1.1 features (electronic acceptance and payment for entitlement offers) that will be included in a future release after Day 1, and any other future releases under the replacement system.

On 30 November 2020, ASX published the ninth drop of code into the Customer Development Environment (CDE 9). Release notes providing full details can be found here.

On 6 November 2020, ASX held an Implementation & Transition working group webinar on ASX’s response to consultation feedback & confirmed implementation timetable; the Q&A, webinar recording & presentation materials are available here.

The latest CHESS Replacement newsletter has been published for November 2020, and can be accessed here. New subscribers can be added to the distribution list by contacting CHESSReplacement@asx.com.au.

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.