The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) has signed a three-party memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Digital Asset and VMware to work together on distributed ledger technology (DLT) initiatives in Australia and New Zealand.
Under the principles in the agreement, ASX plans to provide its DLT offering with the support of Digital Asset and VMware.
This will include the development of the application to replace ASX’s equities clearing and settlement system (CHESS), the support of Digital Asset Modelling Language, and the provision and support of the distributed ledger and associated infrastructure, which delivers ASX’s data privacy, confidentiality and security requirements at greater scale.
While ASX remains initially focused on the replacement of CHESS, the partnership will strengthen its ability to support the financial services industry using the infrastructure to create new services and innovations beyond clearing and settlement.
It will also enable ASX, Digital Asset and VMware to work together to provide and support DLT solutions to other customers in Australia and New Zealand.
In the meantime, software for the new system to replace CHESS is being progressively deployed within ASX’s customer development environment, where customers and their service providers have begun exploring the clearing and settlement functionality of the new system.
Peter Hiom, ASX Deputy CEO, commented: “This new partnership is a very positive development that will help us support a wider range of DLT solutions developed by the industry. It confirms our belief in the potential of DLT as we remain on track to deliver the CHESS replacement system in March to April 2021.”
