Australian trading bourse and TCS to partner up to create trading software

ASX Ltd., an Australian bourse operator, has partnered with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to create a product-based solution to replace its trading, clearing, and settlement systems. ASX Ltd. announced this on Monday, November 20, 2023.

The bourse operator stated in a press release that ASX believes the selected product will enable it to offer a dependable, supportable, and scalable platform that fulfills the requirements of the Australian market both presently and in the future.

The company also underscored that it would execute the new platform in two important releases. The clearing service will be executed as the first release, and the second release will execute the settlement and sub-registrar services.

ASX CEO Helen Lofthouse remarked that the upcoming phase of the project would be a multi-year endeavor. She added that ASX would uphold its investment in the current CHESS platform to ensure its continued efficient and reliable operation until the replacement is implemented.

ASX also gave an estimated cost for the first release of the Clearing House Electronic Sub-register System (CHESS) project to be between A$105 million ($68.33 million) and A$125 million, which will be incurred over multiple years.

The bourse operator stated that the CHESS replacement project is progressing to the subsequent phase of design and implementation, and additional stakeholder consultation is scheduled to commence in the first quarter of 2024.

It is important to note that the exchange operator has come under a lot of criticism in recent times as Australia has passed laws to improve competition in post-trade settlement and clearing for the financial market since ASX abandoned an expensive rebuild of its CHESS platform in 2022.

ASX had sought to replace its legacy CHESS software with blockchain-based technology. However, the initiative was abandoned in November of the previous year, citing issues such as dysfunctional management, concerns about the product's complexity and scalability, and challenges in finding experts to support the project.