ASX outage deepens investors’ doubts over tech overhaul

By Christine Chen and Scott Murdoch

SYDNEY, Dec 3 (Reuters) – The Australian Securities Exchange’s technology turnaround plan, touted by the firm’s chair as being too important to fail, is facing questions from investors and market participants after it was hit by a fresh outage this week, the ​latest in a string of failures.

About 80 companies with price-sensitive disclosures were placed in a trading halt on Monday after the ASX’s announcement platform ‌collapsed, leaving hundreds of statements unable to be published.

The disruption highlights reputational risks for ASX as it struggles to overhaul aging systems. The failure has raised questions about governance and operational resilience, issues ‌that investors say are critical for maintaining market integrity.

“It was, frankly, embarrassing, especially after the number of incidents they faced over the last 12 months,” said Omkar Joshi, Opal Capital founder, an ASX market participant.

“The reality is since we’re still seeing continued issues coming up, I think it’s very hard to say that they have actually succeeded in delivering anything just yet. But that doesn’t mean they can’t turn it around – but there is a fair bit of work to do.”

The ASX said in a statement to ⁠Reuters that Monday’s outage, which was gradually restored during the ‌trading session, was “related to a software deployment for a security upgrade”.

“We are sorry for the disruption this caused and we have been following up with all affected companies to offer any further support and to listen and learn,” the statement said.

The ASX said ‍it would also provide an incident report to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

REPEATED TECHNOLOGY FAILURES

The blunder was the latest misstep for ASX, which is already under investigation by the regulator. ASIC has questioned the ASX’s ability to provide secure and resilient critical market infrastructure.

ASX chair David Clarke told the company’s annual meeting in Sydney in October a major turnaround plan ​to upgrade the exchange’s technology could not afford to fail.

But less than two months on investors are wary if the ASX will be able to deliver ‌on its promise to ease the regulatory burden the company is facing.

“The outage is clearly disappointing and is probably just a continuation of some of the problems they’ve had in the past that they’re yet to get right,” said Sean Sequeira, chief investment officer at Australian Eagle Asset Management, an ASX investor.

“There’s a technology issue. It’s not a case of whether they’ll turn it around, it’s whether they’ll turn it around in an acceptable amount of time,” he said.

ASX UNDER SCRUTINY

The ASX’s failed upgrade of its settlement system dates back more than nine years, and the exchange is being sued by ASIC for making misleading statements on technological progress during that ⁠time.

A new clearing system will run on more advanced technology, replacing a three-decade-old system known ​as the Clearing House Electronic Subregister System (CHESS) which collapsed in 2024, stopping settlement of trades for a ​day.

The first phase of the new system is due in the first half of 2026. Investors are banking on the upgrade to help ASX’s flagging fortunes.

“Moving cash market clearing to a new platform de-risks part of ASX’s infrastructure and should allow ASX to demonstrate ‍to regulators that it is strengthening operational ⁠resilience,” said Greig Barrow, a portfolio manager at Akambo, an ASX investor.

The upgrade is expected to cost up to A$445 million ($293 million), which comes after the ASX made a A$250 million writedown as it dumped its plan to replace its existing settlement system with blockchain technology.

“They’ve been pretty complacent and ⁠clearly not invested enough. Their systems don’t seem to be able to keep up with the modern world,” said Jason Beddow, managing director at Argo Investments which has A$8 billion in funds under ‌management.

The ASX said it was continuing to make “strong progress” on the overhaul of its systems and Monday’s outage was an unrelated incident.

($1 = 1.5209 ‌Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Christine Chen and Scott Murdoch in Sydney; Editing by Sonali Paul)