meta_id 3238548

On June 26, 2026, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) announced that ASX Limited (ASX) admitted to making misleading statements regarding its CHESS replacement project. ASX's February 10, 2022 market announcement stating the project was "progressing well" was misleading and exposed market participants to financial harm risk. ASX admitted that as of December 21, 2021, the CHESS replacement project was not on its critical path to go-live in April 2023 and was internally classified "red," indicating significant unresolved issues or risks. Industry test environments had opened with reduced scope and performance, while timelines for incomplete work had been pushed out. Despite these conditions, ASX told the market the project was progressing well. Six weeks later, on March 28, 2022, ASX announced a strong likelihood of project delay. ASX subsequently paused the project and derecognised approximately $245–255 million in pre-tax project costs. ASX contravened sections 12DA and 12DB(1)(a) and (e) of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 (Cth). ASIC and ASX will ask the Federal Court to impose a penalty of $20.5 million and order ASX to pay $3 million towards ASIC's costs. ASIC Chair Sarah Court said ASX's statement risked undermining confidence in Australia's financial markets, emphasising that accurate and timely disclosures are fundamental to maintaining trust in critical market infrastructure. Since these events, ASIC obtained commitments from ASX to strengthen oversight, governance, and delivery of the CHESS replacement program. The CHESS replacement project aimed to replace the Clearing House Electronic Subregister System with a new distributed ledger technology system. Release 1 went live on April 20, 2026. A Federal Court hearing on final orders and penalty is scheduled for July 1, 2026.