ASIC probes latest ASX CHESS glitch

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has opened an investigation into a technical issue with the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) just before Christmas last year.

The exchange said it had been “notified [pdf]” of the investigation into its troubled Clearing House Electronic Subregister System or CHESS.

On December 20, a CHESS glitch forced the ASX to delay trade settlements until the following Monday.

The market operator said it would "cooperate fully with ASIC".

An ASIC spokesperson confirmed the investigation but said it would "not comment further at this time.”

The ASX released an incident review earlier this month, including "an analysis of the root cause, steps taken to prevent it reoccurring and a preliminary action plan to ensure the ongoing stability of CHESS."

The problem was attributed to a dormant coding error in "an area of CHESS that calculates memory allocation for the settlement processes." A mix of events combined to trigger the bug.

The ASX is trying to replace the CHESS system. An earlier blockchain-based replacement failed, and the exchange is now looking at a core running TCS technology instead.