Dec 15 (Reuters) – Australia’s corporate regulator said on Monday it has imposed an additional capital charge of A$150 million ($99.59 million) on the local bourse operator, ASX, in response to an inquiry launched earlier this year.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission launched a sweeping probe into the country’s main stock exchange in June after years of tensions over a failed software upgrade and repeated trade-processing glitches.
ASIC said the review panel, after about 140 stakeholder interviews, found ASX’s focus on short-term profits and shareholder returns had undermined its duty to run vital market infrastructure, among other issues.
The regulator will also be resetting the bourse operator’s ‘Accelerate’ program – which looked to deliver required improvements in operational risk management, among others – with new targets and benchmarking agreed to by ASIC and the Reserve Bank of Australia.
In addition, ASIC and the RBA will step up their review to uplift their joint supervisory model, the regulator added in a statement.
ASX said it would be releasing a market announcement shortly in response to the ASIC statement.
The bourse operator had flagged in October that the rise in its total core business expenses, excluding costs related to an inquiry by the corporate regulator, would come in at the upper end of an 8% to 11% range for 2026.
($1 = 1.5063 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Shivangi Lahiri in Bengaluru; Editing by Chris Reese)
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