Provided by ASX
ASX reached an important milestone with CHESS Release 1 going live on 20 April 2026. Andrew Jones, Acting Group Executive, Securities and Payments, takes us behind the scenes with a peak at launch day.
Monday 20 April was a momentous day for ASX with CHESS Release 1 going live. Why is CHESS split into two releases?
A few years ago, we agreed with the market to split the CHESS replacement into two releases to de-risk the go-live. Release 1 delivers the clearing component first, with settlement to follow in Release 2.
Clearing is where CHESS receives trades from Approved Market Operators (AMOs), clears them and nets them down before they flow into settlement. In Australia there are four AMOs: Cboe, NSX, SSE and ASX Trade.
Release 1 involved ASX standing up a new clearing system on new cloud architecture. Prior to go-live we tested the new systems in parallel with the legacy CHESS clearing system for several months to confirm they produced the same outcomes. That preparation, and great collaboration with the AMOs, helped us go live smoothly on 20 April.
Around 200,000 trades were received in the first 10 minutes of trading. When did you know launch was a success?
It did feel like mission control. A big team worked the weekend, so it wasn’t one single rocket launch moment. First, we completed the migration: moving key data from the legacy system into the new one, primarily listed company reference data and corporate actions for Monday. The environments had been running for weeks, so the weekend was about loading data and connecting everything into production.
On Monday we started watching live trade flow from about 7:10am (ahead of the 10:00am market open) because we receive some trades early. Seeing those trades arrive was a huge proof point: the connections worked, the data was in place, and we were processing in real time. Then at 10:00am we saw full market volumes come through the new clearing system. Up to about 10:15am we had the option to roll back if something wasn’t right, but everything was working well so we pushed forward.
Each milestone built confidence: market open, batch settlement at 11:30am, 4pm close of trading, and finally the end-of-day processing. When those scheduled operations run cleanly, it’s a strong signal of end-to-end stability.
Day one cleared 3.6 million trades across all AMOs. What did that prove?
It was a high volume day, so it validated the system under real load. A couple of years ago an average day might have 1-2 million trades; over the last few months it’s been around 3 million. Clearing 3.6 million across all AMOs on day one was a solid proof point.
What told you early on that the new clearing platform was stable?
We saw a smooth run across the board, and processing speed was in line or better than expected. For CHESS, a big part of confidence is simply doing the right things at the right times: trade registration, clearing and netting, settlement batch, then end-of-day processing. Once trades were flowing, I was comfortable then the scheduled batch processes at the end of the day ran cleanly so by then we were 100% confident the new system was performing normally.
CHESS replacement has been a collaborative effort with the AMOs. What gave you the most confidence the market was ready?
Rehearsal and repetition. We ran five dress rehearsals in total, two internally and three full-industry rehearsals. Each time, we migrated data, connected systems, and then ran the new platform in parallel with the legacy system for a few weeks to verify outcomes.
On the day, it was discipline and trust in the plan. We had around 100 people on the floor and you’d hear small bursts of applause as different milestones landed such as data platform checks, connectivity, gateways coming up, core services switching over in the cloud environment. Everyone had a clear runbook, knew when they were on point, and executed step by step. There was definitely nervous energy, but also real pride as it came together.
What should the market look out for with CHESS Release 2: Settlement.
The work shifts from a small set of AMOs to the broader participant community: brokers, banks and other CHESS users, plus their software providers, who will need to upgrade systems and test. Clearing is largely about receiving and netting trades; settlement is about moving securities and money and matching them correctly on settlement day.
Release 1 worked because the AMOs and participants collaborated constructively, tested thoroughly and stayed aligned. There will always be bumps in the road with change of this scale, but if we bring the same mindset into Release 2, we’ll get there together again.
