Already a subscriber?The decline in the international competitiveness of Australia’s equity capital markets over the past decade looks certain to worsen as the ASX’s upgrade of its clearing and settlement system pushes back necessary reforms to market structures and practices.clearing and settlement system, it is clear that the negative consequences of this software upgrade debacle will go far beyond the $250 million write-down borne by ASX shareholders.
But this columnist suspects ASIC, the RBA and the ACCC will hold off using their new pro-competition powers and just allow ASX to get on with the job of fixing CHESS. But in the 10 years to 2023, when the global market capitalisation of shares soared 60 per cent to $US107 trillion, Australia’s equity market cap rose only 28 per cent, according to the World Federation of Exchanges.
In the five years to 2023, ASX lifted its foreign listings by 5 per cent to 147, whereas they rose 84 per cent to 821 on the Nasdaq and 66 per cent to 254 on Euronext. Emma Quinn, president of Cboe Global Markets Australia, which handles 20 per cent of cash equities trading in Australia, says ASX has not provided equal access to its Trade Acceptance Service .
“One of the things we really like with the platform with the solution that we’ve chosen is that it’s a very modular architecture, and it’s going to enable unaffiliated market operators and, potentially, other clearing and settlement facilities, and other types of providers as well to be able to access and interoperate with the individual clearing settlement and sub-register services, using standardised interfaces,” she says.