The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) today announced an Inquiry into Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) group, focusing on governance, capability and risk management frameworks and practices across the group.

ASIC and the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) have ongoing concerns over ASX’s ability to maintain stable, secure and resilient critical market infrastructure.

ASIC’s Inquiry will be led by an expert panel that will make recommendations to address any identified shortcomings or deficiencies.

The regulator will discontinue its investigation of the 20 December 2024 CHESS Batch Settlement failure. Consideration of this incident will form part of the broader Inquiry.

ASIC will conduct the Inquiry using existing powers under Section 794C and 823C of the Corporations Act 2001 to assess how well ASX is complying with its obligations as a market licensee and a Clearing and Settlement facility licensee.

The RBA and ASIC are co-regulators of licensed Clearing and Settlement (CS) facilities and have separate, but complementary, responsibilities for the licensing and supervision of CS facilities licensees.

In March 2025, in a joint letter to the ASX, ASIC and RBA expressed increasing concern over the management of operational risk, following the CHESS batch settlement failure incident that occurred on 20 Dec. The expert technical review of CHESS, that ASIC announced on 31 March, will continue alongside the Inquiry.