‘Looks good’: ASX signed off on upbeat market release despite years of CHESS delays
Newly released court documents lay out the timeline behind the ASX’s bungled tech upgrade, and how it it misled the market.
Figures inside the ASX were concerned about delays to the upgrade of its Clearing House Electronic Subregister System (CHESS) for at least three months before the bourse operator told the market the project was “on track” to “go live” in April 2023.
New court documents, released in the wake of the ASX’s settlement of legal proceedings with the corporate regulator for misleading the market, for the first time lay out the timeline behind the bungled tech upgrade and how it was disclosed to investors.
The document said by mid-2021, the project led by Digital Asset — the company employed to design and develop the CHESS replacement solution — was subject to delays.
On 21 December 2021, the ASX placed a ‘red’ classification on the CHESS project, indicating there were significant issues or risks impacting the project’s outcomes. The project was also flagged as “not on its critical path for the ‘Go Live’ date of April 2023 and needed to ‘return’ to it,” the court documents show.
