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ASX announces plans to adopt blockchain technology for equity clearing and settlement

ASX announces plans to adopt blockchain technology for equity clearing and settlement

Australia’s primary securities exchange, ASX, has announced
its intention to replace its clearing and settlement system, CHESS, with
distributed ledger technology (DLT or blockchain) developed by its technology
partner Digital Asset (DA).

CHESS
(Clearing House Electronic Subregister System) is the system used by ASX to
record shareholdings and manage the clearing and settlement of equity
transactions in Australia (exchanging the title or legal ownership of financial
products for money when buying or selling the financial products is referred to
as settlement). The press release says that CHESS was world-leading when
introduced in the 1990s, providing name-on-register functionality, electronic
communications and removing paper share certificates. It continues to be a
robust and reliable system. But ASX is now replacing CHESS with a next generation
post-trade platform using contemporary technology.

The decision to replace CHESS with the blockchain-based
system follows the successful build of enterprise-grade DLT software for core
equity clearing and settlement functions, and the completion of extensive
suitability testing by ASX and DA over the past two years.

The testing was conducted in parallel with a stakeholder
consultation program, which included briefing of regulators, to enable ASX to
develop a comprehensive understanding of what the market wants in replacing
CHESS. The process included two independent third-party security reviews of the
technology.

The testing confirms ASX’s confidence in the functional,
capacity, security and resilience capabilities of DA’s application of DLT to
meet the needs of Australia’s financial marketplace and maintain the highest
regulatory and operational standards.

ASX has revealed that it will now work with stakeholders on
finalising the scope of Day 1 functionality for the new system, drawing on its
extensive consultation that will continue in 2018. Day 1 functionality and the
proposed timing for transition are expected to be released for market feedback
at the end of March 2018.

The new system will be operated by ASX on a secure private
network where participants are known, ‘permissioned’ to have access, and must
comply with ongoing and enforceable obligations.

The system will be designed without access barriers to
non-affiliated market operators and clearing and settlement facilities. It will
also give ASX’s customers choice as to how they use ASX’s post-trade services.
Customers will be able to connect in a similar way they do today, with the
addition of using contemporary global ISO
20022
messaging, or they may interact directly with the distributed ledger.
The transition period to the new system will be determined in consultation with
stakeholders.

Dominic Stevens, ASX Managing Director and CEO, said, “ASX
has been carefully examining distributed ledger technology for almost
two-and-a-half years, including the last two years with Digital Asset, in order
to understand its potential application. Having completed this work, we believe
that using DLT to replace CHESS will enable our customers to develop new
services and reduce their costs, and it will put Australia at the forefront of
innovation in financial markets. While we have a lot more work still to do,
today’s announcement is a major milestone on that journey.”

“ASX has consulted extensively on the needs and priorities
for replacing CHESS, including with customers, share registries, software
vendors, other exchanges and industry associations. I am very grateful for
their input and support. We’ve given over 80 DLT system demonstrations to more
than 500 attendees, and conducted over 60 CHESS replacement workshops for more
than 100 organisations from the global financial services industry. ASX has
also formed a strong partnership with Digital Asset over the past two years,
and we’re confident we have chosen the right partner. Together, we look forward
to continuing to work with the industry as we finalise the requirements and the
roadmap for implementation of the new system,” commented Peter Hiom, ASX Deputy
CEO.

Blythe Masters, Digital Asset CEO, said, “After so much hype
surrounding distributed ledger technology, today’s announcement delivers the
first meaningful proof that the technology can live up to its potential.
Together, DA and our client ASX have shown that the technology not only works,
but can meet the requirements of mission critical financial infrastructure.”

Coinciding with today’s decision, ASX will exercise its
pro-rata right to participate in DA’s recent Series B fundraising and subscribe
for US$3.5 million convertible notes. ASX and DA have agreed to work
exclusively on DLT in Australia and New Zealand. This agreement applies while
the Day 1 functionality of the new system is being finalised, and will continue
subject to agreement of the full contractual arrangements for the development
and support of the new system.

PARTNER

Qlik’s vision is a data-literate world, where everyone can use data and analytics to improve decision-making and solve their most challenging problems. A private company, Qlik offers real-time data integration and analytics solutions, powered by Qlik Cloud, to close the gaps between data, insights and action. By transforming data into Active Intelligence, businesses can drive better decisions, improve revenue and profitability, and optimize customer relationships. Qlik serves more than 38,000 active customers in over 100 countries.

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CTC Global Singapore, a premier end-to-end IT solutions provider, is a fully owned subsidiary of ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (CTC) and ITOCHU Corporation.

Since 1972, CTC has established itself as one of the country’s top IT solutions providers. With 50 years of experience, headed by an experienced management team and staffed by over 200 qualified IT professionals, we support organizations with integrated IT solutions expertise in Autonomous IT, Cyber Security, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure, Workplace Modernization and Professional Services.

Well-known for our strengths in system integration and consultation, CTC Global proves to be the preferred IT outsourcing destination for organizations all over Singapore today.

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Planview has one mission: to build the future of connected work. Our solutions enable organizations to connect the business from ideas to impact, empowering companies to accelerate the achievement of what matters most. Planview’s full spectrum of Portfolio Management and Work Management solutions creates an organizational focus on the strategic outcomes that matter and empowers teams to deliver their best work, no matter how they work. The comprehensive Planview platform and enterprise success model enables customers to deliver innovative, competitive products, services, and customer experiences. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with locations around the world, Planview has more than 1,300 employees supporting 4,500 customers and 2.6 million users worldwide. For more information, visit www.planview.com.

SUPPORTING ORGANISATION

SIRIM is a premier industrial research and technology organisation in Malaysia, wholly-owned by the Minister​ of Finance Incorporated. With over forty years of experience and expertise, SIRIM is mandated as the machinery for research and technology development, and the national champion of quality. SIRIM has always played a major role in the development of the country’s private sector. By tapping into our expertise and knowledge base, we focus on developing new technologies and improvements in the manufacturing, technology and services sectors. We nurture Small Medium Enterprises (SME) growth with solutions for technology penetration and upgrading, making it an ideal technology partner for SMEs.

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HashiCorp provides infrastructure automation software for multi-cloud environments, enabling enterprises to unlock a common cloud operating model to provision, secure, connect, and run any application on any infrastructure. HashiCorp tools allow organizations to deliver applications faster by helping enterprises transition from manual processes and ITIL practices to self-service automation and DevOps practices. 

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IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly 3,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

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