After CME, ASX Outage Exposes Exchange Flaws: Brings More Worries for the Aussie Operator

The troubles for the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) have mounted, as the main Aussie stock market faced a technical outage for hours this morning (Monday).

Trading Resumed, but Partially

The exchange has said that “ASX Trade remains fully operational” and has published all corporate statements received after 11:22 am Sydney time. However, it is now working with companies whose price-sensitive announcements were affected by the outage. Trading in those companies is still suspended.

“Companies that had been placed in a trading pause will resume trading once their announcements are published,” the exchange said in an update.

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Another Setback for the ASX

The technical glitch came as the Aussie exchange operator is under scrutiny from the local regulators for failures across “governance, capability and risk management frameworks and practices across the group.”

The joint investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) began earlier this year, following multiple outages and glitches on the ASX. The clearing and settlement system of the Aussie exchange is also under scrutiny.

The exchange had a plan to transform its legacy clearing and settlement software platform into a blockchain-based one in 2017. However, the project faced multiple delays and was eventually abandoned in 2022. The exchange hired India’s Tata Consultancy Services the following year to start a staged upgrade of its platform, which is scheduled to deliver the first part in 2026 at an estimated cost between AU$105 million and AU$125 million.

Last August, the exchange incorrectly tagged one of Australia’s largest internet providers in an unrelated takeover announcement, which resulted in the wipeout of over AU$400 million from its publicly listed stocks. The exchange later suspended the stock from trading and even said it had cancelled the trades.

Meanwhile, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), one of the largest derivatives venue operators, faced an almost 10-hour outage last Friday. The failure of its data centres affected its popular currency platform and futures markets spanning foreign exchange, commodities, Treasuries and stocks. Forex and commodities pricing and liquidity faced a major disruption globally during those outage hours.