The head of the Association of Stockbrokers and Financial Advisor of Australia says the group’s spending is on the rise as the Australian Stock Exchange(ASX) moves to a blockchain based system, According to Australian Financial Review.
Judith Fox, CEO of Stockbrokers and Financial Advisors Association, said upgradation to the ASX’s aging CHESS system is costing millions.
“Many of our members are spending millions of dollars in order to be able to interact with the new distributed ledger technology that the ASX is implementing,” Fox said.
Last summer, market participants demanded that ASX postpone the launch of a system for two years. They said that the new project “lacks clarity”. So, as a result, ASX postponed the transaction to blockchain until 2023.
Fox argues that members aren’t only in the business of providing industry advice. They are connected in some way to the ASX and “other global exchanges.”
“The Investment required to operate in global market is getting more and more intense,” said Fox as cited in the report.
An ASX spokesman attending the committee meeting said that “upgrade would entail certain costs,”. Those costs would need to be determined by customers.
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“This will be primarily due to the manner in which they connect, the features they wish to use, or their need to integrate the new system into their downstream environments,” the spokesman said.
“Customers have choice about how they wish to interact with the new CHESS system,” said an ASX spokesman.
ASX’s blockchain upgrade, a world-first, is currently in the testing phase of its development cycle. It is expected in 2022-23.
