ASX slashes executive bonuses after reputational and regulatory hit
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More news: The ASX has halved short term executive bonuses as it makes its leadership team accountable for what chair David Clarke acknowledged are "heightened regulatory scrutiny and reputational challenges" facing the company.
What they said: After receiving a first strike against its remuneration report at last year's AGM, the ASX said shareholders were dissatisfied with its FY24 report and it had applied discretion this year, particularly in light of the ongoing ASIC inquiry.
"This has meant halving the short term variable reward pool for the executive leadership team and further downward adjustments were made for roles accountable for risk management issues, including reductions to zero in some cases," Clarke said.
The numbers: Chief executive Helen Lofthouse will forgo her bonus entirely in FY25, which had been $850,000 the year prior. New chief risk officer Dirk McLeish will receive $26,715. CFO Andrew Tobin's was cut from $336,375 to $140,400. Securities and payments executive Clive Triance will be paid $125,000, down from $303,257. Darren Yip, who had his role expanded to group exeucitve of markets and listings fell by less, will see his dropped to $245,000 from $315,000 previously.
However, total remuneration increased year-on-year with all executives receiving a collective $4.87 million, up from $4.5 million.
ASX admits it has 'further work to do' as profit hits $502m, flags rising costs
The news: The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) has acknowledged it has more work to do as it reported a statutory net profit of $502.6 million and a final dividend of $1.12 fully franked.
The numbers: The ASX reported operating revenue of $1.11 billion, up 7% on the previous year. That was broadly in line with expenses which grew at 7.2% to $460.3 million. But the company flagged that costs were expected to rise between 14% and 19% in FY26 as it faces regulatory scrutiny from ASIC.
Strong revenue results were recorded in three of the four business arms. The markets business generated $349.2 million revenue (up 10.7%), the tech and data arm produced $275.6 million (up 8%) and the securities and payments business recorded $274.4 million (up 7.4%). In a quiet IPO environment, revenue in the ASX's listings business went slightly backwards, producing $208 million revenue despite fee hikes.
A final dividend of $1.12, representing a payout ratio of 85%, brought the total dividend for FY25 to $2.23.
The context: The company last week told the market it expected to incur $25 million to $35 million worth of additional costs as a result of its compliance with an ASIC inquiry.
"ASX faced several challenges in FY25 and we recognise we have further work to do, through the disciplined execution of our transformation strategy, to build confidence in ASX and deliver better outcomes for all our stakeholders. While we do not underestimate the work ahead, our financial results today demonstrate that the fundamentals of our business remain compelling," chief executive Helen Lofthouse said.
The ASX was under greater scrutiny from the regulator, and facing reputational risk after several trading outages and the TPG incident last week, Lofthouse said she was committed to restoring confidence in the exchange.
"We are cooperating fully with an Inquiry launched by ASIC in June focusing on governance, capability, and risk management frameworks and practices across the Group," she said, noting a dedicated team would work on it with the inquiry expected to be resolved next year.
The source: ASX release
