ASIC v ASX heats up with legal privilege battle
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The news: ASX wants access to communications between the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and its internal legal team, as the regulator's lawsuit against the exchange over alleged misleading statements relating to its CHESS replacement program continues.
In a brief case management hearing in Sydney on Wednesday, legal teams for ASIC and ASX flagged the potential cross examination of in-house ASIC lawyer Adam Boscoscuro at a future hearing challenging ASIC's confidentiality claims.
Federal Court of Australia Judge Brigitte Markovic, who is presiding over ASIC's lawsuit against ASX, has said it may be appropriate to hand the confidentiality battle to another judge.
The context: In August, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) alleged that while ASX said its CHESS program was "on-track for go-live" in April 2023 and was "progressing well", this was all misleading.
According to ASIC, at that time the project was not on schedule and ASX was unable to imply the project could meet future timetable goals.
In November, ASX said it rejected the allegations and that it had provided the regulator with regular updates on the project.
ASX chief executive officer Helen Lofthouse said at the time it was “in the interests of the company and its shareholders that ASX defends the proceedings”.
The matter is due for a further case management hearing on 3 April at 9am.
