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- The Australian investor watchdog has threatened to take action against the ASX after Monday’s major market failure
- The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) says it is assessing the ASX’s ability to operate the share market properly after a major market failure on Monday
- The ASX crashed after just 24 minutes of trade on Monday morning and was out until the start of trade on Tuesday
- It seems the tech failure came after a system update over the weekend, which did not go as smoothly as hoped
- On top of this, ASIC also raised concerns about data issues surrounding the ASX’s Centre Point matching system on Tuesday
- Nevertheless, the ASX maintains it is confident in its ability to operate the share market in a fair, orderly, and transparent manner
The Australian investor watchdog has threatened to take action against the ASX after Monday’s major market failure.
The local sharemarket crashed after just 24 minutes of trade on Monday and could not be restored until Tuesday morning, causing anger and panic among Australian investors.
Now, The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has questioned ASX infrastructure and stewardship.
“ASIC is actively assessing ASX’s compliance with its market licence obligations and is considering further actions to ensure the adequacy of ASX’s human, financial and technological resources to operate its markets in an orderly manner,” ASIC said in a media statement yesterday.
The investor watchdog said it is concerned that there have been further issues with ASX infrastructure than could impact the fair, orderly, and transparent operations of the share market.
It seems the reason for the market outage on Monday was related to a delicate update of the ASX’s Clearing House Electronic Subregister System (CHESS) system.
The update is only slated to officially go live in 2023, but as part of the changeover from the current outdated system to the new one, the ASX updated some core components of its tech system over the weekend.
But things didn’t go as smoothly as hoped, hence the Monday crash.
On top of this, ASIC also raised concerns about data issues surrounding the ASX’s Centre Point matching system on Tuesday.
Nevertheless, the market operator maintained that it is “very confident” in meeting its market licence obligations.
“While we regret and apologise for the ongoing issues, ASX is determined to continue upgrading its technology stack from top to bottom – safely and in a timely manner – to ensure we best serve the needs of our customers and the Australian market,” the ASX said on Tuesday.
Trade across the ASX has tracked along as per normal since Tuesday morning.
