The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) has released details of its proposal to give certain stakeholders an incentive payment as part of the CHESS replacement partnership programme.
The partnership programme is designed to recognise the work that will be undertaken to progress and complete the CHESS replacement project which was paused in November 2022.
The partnership programme consists of two separate financial support components. The first is a Participant Rebate Pool of AUD $15 million to be paid to clearing and settlement participants in August 2023.
The second is a Development Incentive Pool of up to $55 million for stakeholders that meet the eligibility criteria, with an initial payment expected to be made in May 2023, subject to feedback.
To be eligible for the Development Incentive Pool, a partnership programme participant must develop a technology application to connect to and interact with the CHESS replacement solution. The application will be subject to technical accreditation by ASX.
Helen Lofthouse, managing director and CEO of ASX (pictured), says: “In developing the partnership programme, we were cognisant of stakeholder feedback on the extended timeline to deliver CHESS replacement and recognise that their further engagement will be required for longer than originally expected.
“The partnership programme payments are aimed at a broad cross-section of critical stakeholders including clearing and settlement participants, share registries, software vendors and in-house development teams.”
ASX faced severe industry criticism after choosing to pause its CHESS replacement project last year, as part of a plan to “reassess all aspects” of the planned update.
The decision, announced on 17 November, followed ASX’s own internal assessment and the completion of an independent review, conducted by Accenture. The independent report identified significant challenges with the solution design and its ability to meet ASX’s requirements.
On the same day that plans were paused Tim Whiteley was appointed project director for the next phase of the CHESS replacement project.
He will be responsible for revisiting the solution design, establishing new project governance arrangements, strengthening vendor management and positioning the project for the next delivery phase.
Daniel Moran was appointed as chief compliance officer in January. However, non-executive director Rob Woods resigned from the board in March.
CHESS’ original go-live date was set for April 2022, but was then pushed back to April 2023, mostly due to the impact of COVID-19 on the industry, particularly throughout 2020 in areas including collaboration and productivity.
