Regulator finds ASX prioritized returns over resilience

The corporate regulator in Australia has issued a final report highlighting severe governance weaknesses and risk management failures at the country's primary market operator. According to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), ASX LTD compromised the resilience of essential market infrastructure in order to prioritize high returns for its shareholders. The findings align with interim conclusions from an independent inquiry, which suggested the exchange operator lacked the aspiration to serve as a proper steward of critical financial systems. The panel noted that risk management and compliance practices at the bourse must mature and become more deeply integrated into daily business operations to prevent future disruptions. > "The further evidence and key observations in this Final Report support the scale of transformational change required at ASX to deliver on its stewardship of critical market infrastructure," ASIC Chair Joe Longo said. The inquiry was prompted by several years of technical issues that frustrated market participants, the regulator, and the central bank. Notable failures include a near-total trading outage during high-volume periods in 2020 and a costly, unsuccessful project to rebuild clearing and settlement software using custom blockchain technology starting in 2017. > "This report confirms that ASICs decision to commission this unprecedented Inquiry was the right call." Operational challenges have continued into more recent years, including a company name error in August 2025 and an outage affecting the market announcements platform in December. In response to the ongoing concerns, ASIC had already imposed an additional capital charge of A$150 million on the exchange operator last December. The final report emphasizes that significant internal changes are required to restore confidence in the operator's management of the nation's financial backbone.