By Scott Murdoch and Christine Chen
SYDNEY, Oct 14 (Reuters) - New ASX CEO Anthony Attia said he wants to expedite the transition to one-day cash equity trading settlement, bringing Australia in line with the United States as well as European and Hong Kong exchanges which plan the move next year.
ASX considered shifting to trading-plus-1 days from T+2 in 2024 but shelved the idea after market participants said it was more important to focus on its A$445 million ($311.54 million) technology overhaul
after a series of outages, settlement delays and other glitches led to a reprimand and a regulatory fine.
The final upgrade of the clearing and settlement system, known as CHESS, is not due to be finished until 2029, but Attia said a faster settlement period could be introduced beforehand.
"I think it's too late. So I'm very willing to engage with the market to bring that forward," Attia said in an interview on Wednesday, adding he plans to start consulting with regulators and market participants. "We don't have any reason to keep T+3 or T+2 today."
The US has had T+1 for two years and the London and Euronext exchanges plan to switch in October next year. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange plans the move in the fourth quarter of 2027.
Australia's cash equity trades have settled on a two-day basis in CHESS since 2016.
Faster settlement is just one of the initiatives Attia, only six weeks into his role, has in mind to increase ASX's competitiveness and restore its reputation.
"The ASX has a lot of work to do to become a best-in-class competing exchange," Attia said.
"It's a very competitive industry. I love competition. I think it gets the best out of people. And my job is to transform ASX to become a large, successful, competitive exchange."
The French exchange executive spent nearly three decades at pan-European market operator Euronext before replacing former CEO Helen Lofthouse.
He took the job following one of ASX's most challenging periods, marked by intense scrutiny from regulators and investors stemming from CHESS upgrade delays and cost blowouts as well as outages.
His early challenges included data centre operator Firmus scrapping an initial public offering last week.
But ASX should not wait until issues are settled before pursuing initiatives, such as modernising and improving the attractiveness of its listing business, Attia said.
"I don't have the luxury to (wait) because we are in an industry where things are moving extremely fast. We're already talking about 24/7 tokenisation. Capital is mobile. Capital has no passport," he said.
"My job as CEO is to create the right culture at ASX and the right level of ambition so that we can fix as well as grow almost simultaneously."
ASX's share price closed the financial year ended June 30 down 23.6%.
A nine-month regulatory investigation found ASX had prioritised shareholder returns and failed to invest adequately in infrastructure, which "compromised the success of Australia's financial markets".
When asked why investors should trust in his ability, after a decade of turmoil at ASX, Attia said: "I'm not asking anyone to trust me on my word, on my ambition.
"I'm asking people to continue working with ASX... We will demonstrate, we will show proof of changes," he said.
($1 = 1.4284 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Scott Murdoch and Christine Chen in Sydney; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
