Cboe Australia’s Emma Quinn takes up the challenge for the ASX

Cboe has commented on the legislation and, according to Ms. Quinn, may be open to offering an alternative clearing and settlement system in response to the regulatory change that is likely to relax the monopoly of ASX’s 29-year-old CHESS system.

The CHESS replacement project has been mired in delays and production issues for nearly seven years; ASX finally stopped development last November to assess other options.

Everyone I’ve met is very pro-competition, they’ve seen us do a successful technical migration and see their costs reduced [having] a competitor in the market, and they would like us to compete more, many of them know Cboe because they trade globally and have offices in Australia, Ms Quinn said.

The stock trading boss declined to give a specific opinion on the best technology solution to replace CHESS, but said the ASX has one of the highest clearing costs in the world and added that Cboe could undoubtedly offer an alternative if it did want, given the sprawling financial technology group already had clearing operations in Europe.

Earlier in June, Cboe talked about plans to list companies on the stock exchange (instead of the ASX) by 2024 through an initial public offering, subject to regulatory approval.

It’s not about going after the large-cap stocks, we want to go after the focused innovation economy and those growth companies, Ms. Quinn said. This is about growing the pie, not taking the existing pie.

Currently, almost all stocks traded on the Australian Stock Exchange are available for trading on the Cboes exchange, although the ASX generally does not offer Cboe-listed securities for trading on the dominant exchange.