Assessment of ASX Clearing and Settlement Facilities - September 2026

The Reserve Bank of Australia today released the 2026 Assessment of the ASX Clearing and Settlement (CS) Facilities. This assesses the performance of the ASX CS facilities against the RBA’s Financial Stability Standards (Standards).

The ASX CS facilities were rated as having ‘observed’ or ‘broadly observed’ many of the individual Standards.

The RBA assessed that one or more of the CS facilities ‘partly observed’ the requirements under the Standards on Governance, Framework for Comprehensive Management of Risks, Credit Risk, and Operational Risk.

During the year, ASX established a Transformation Portfolio intended to address longstanding shortfalls in governance, capability, culture and risk management. The RBA has set clear expectations over the target outcomes in these areas. If delivered effectively, the portfolio provides ASX with a pathway to meet the standard expected of an operator of critical market infrastructure.

ASX strengthened CHESS resourcing and contingency arrangements following the December 2024 batch settlement incident. As a result, the RBA upgraded ASX Clear and ASX Settlement from ‘not observed’ to ‘partly observed’ against the Operational Risk Standard. These upgrades recognise specific improvements to CHESS and do not indicate an assessment of broader improvement in ASX’s management of operational risk.

RBA Assistant Governor (Financial System) Brad Jones said: ‘ASX is undergoing a period of substantial organisational change in response to several long-running issues. Ensuring that the organisational reset allows ASX to discharge its unique responsibilities in Australia’s financial system will take sustained commitment and focus.