A message from CEO Helen Lofthouse to our customers.
Today we have released an incident review to assist our customers with a more detailed understanding of the CHESS settlement incident that occurred on Friday 20 December 2024.
Our review includes an analysis of the root cause, steps we have taken to prevent it reoccurring and a preliminary action plan that ensures the ongoing stability of CHESS and identifying opportunities for improvement in our incident management protocols.
We’re sorry for the disruption
Responding to an incident can be tough at the best of times and I recognise it was made even more challenging as it happened so close to the Christmas holiday period when teams across the market would have been preparing to go on annual leave. Our ability to mobilise and respond together as a market is a testament to all those involved – thank you for your diligence and responsiveness.
I wanted to take this opportunity to again say I am sorry for the disruption this incident caused. While it has been successfully resolved, there are certainly lessons to be considered by ASX.
Not being able to provide settlement on Friday 20 December 2024 was a serious matter and does not meet the standards we know the market expects of us and which we expect of ourselves. We’re of course disappointed and are focused on ensuring it won’t happen again.
Given the unprecedented nature of the issue and recognising the disruption it caused, we have established a $1 million credit disbursement to Settlement Participants. This will be provided in the form of a rebate, with the credit to be reflected in February invoices. Further detail is provided in the review document.
The cause of the incident
Having completed the root cause analysis, we can now advise that the issue arose from a combination of events but is isolated to an area of CHESS that calculates memory allocation for the settlement processes.
There were specific circumstances in December 2024 that triggered the incident but the root cause can be traced back to an error that was introduced in 2014 to the memory allocation logic which resulted in the Batch Settlement process not being able to complete. Once the issue was understood, we were able to successfully resolve and prevent it from reoccurring.
Our way forward
Even though this incident was highly irregular, we can always learn from these types of events. This includes listening to feedback from our customers and considering incident protocol improvements including how we engage with you. This will be a key part of the action plan we are progressing.
Our focus on the maintenance of CHESS remains, and we continue to progress our work plan to ensure CHESS remains stable, robust and capable of providing uninterrupted clearing and settlement services for the market.
In parallel, work continues on the replacement of the CHESS system, which will be rolled out in two releases. We continue to work towards delivery of Release 1 (Clearing services) in mid-March to end-April 2026, followed by Release 2 (Settlement and Subregister) in 2029.
Once again, I want to thank our customers for their patience and support. As you know, the maintenance of current CHESS and the project to upgrade the system are among the highest priorities at ASX. Releasing today’s review underscores our ongoing commitment to transparency and we will continue to listen to your feedback.
You can access and read our Incident Review here.
Kind regards,
Helen Lofthouse
