ASX acknowledges ASIC investigation into outage
Australia’s leading equities exchange ASX issued a brief notice on Monday, stating that it was aware of regulator ASIC’s investigation into the occurrences of exactly a week ago at the exchange, which led to a near full-day shutdown of trading on the ASX on Monday, November 16.
ASX TRADE OUTAGE – ASIC INVESTIGATION
ASIC has confirmed to ASX that it is conducting an investigation into the ASX Trade outage on Monday 16 November 2020.
ASX acknowledges that this is appropriate given ASIC’s regulatory oversight.
ASX takes its obligations very seriously and will cooperate fully with ASIC.
The exchange called the ASIC action “appropriate”, and of course stated that it will fully cooperate.
ASX became the third major global stock exchange to go down over the past few months, after somewhat similar problems were experienced at the New Zealand NZX in August and at the Tokyo Stock Exchange in October.
The day after the shutdown, Tuesday November 17, the ASX reopened as usual at 10:00am but mid morning it put out a “Partial Operational Impact” notice that it was aware of data issues with its Centre Point anonymous mid-point trade matching system. It later related that, until further notice, ASX Centre Point execution prices would be based on the ASX lit best bid and offer only.
The regulator has a natural obligation to review serious problems and issues at all licensed parties, and the ASX is certainly no exception. However we understand, based in part on previous comments made, that ASIC is somewhat concerned about the overall tech setup at the ASX, and whether there might be serious flaws in its infrastructure – which could leave the exchange, and its participants, open to further problems.