The LSE Directory / Clearing houses
ASX Clear Pty Limited is the central counterparty (CCP) that clears cash equities, warrants, exchange-traded funds and equity derivatives, including exchange-traded options and OTC equity and index options submitted through ASX Equity FlexClear, traded on ASX Trade or an approved market operator. As CCP, it interposes itself as buyer to every seller and seller to every buyer, guaranteeing completion of a trade even if one counterparty defaults. Its sister entity, ASX Clear (Futures) Pty Limited, clears exchange-traded futures and options on the ASX 24 platform plus eligible over-the-counter Australian and New Zealand dollar interest rate derivatives, running on a near-continuous schedule from Monday morning to Saturday 7am AEST. Both are wholly owned subsidiaries of ASX Limited, the operator of the Australian Securities Exchange. ASX Clear is not a competitive clearer chasing market share; it is the sole licensed CCP for Australia's listed equity market, serving stockbrokers and custodians as General, Direct or Clearing-only participants under its Operating Rules. Because national exchange groups typically run their own monopoly CCP, its differentiation from other clearing houses lies in regulatory scope and product mix rather than pricing: it is a domestically licensed facility authorised to clear transactions for participants established in the European Union and the United States, and it is recognised as a qualifying central counterparty under APRA's bank capital rules, which affects the capital treatment banks apply to their cleared exposures. ASX Clear (Futures) specialises in rate and commodity-linked derivatives rather than cash equities, giving the two entities a clean product-line split within the same parent group. ASX Clear was formerly known as Australian Clearing House, with the name change to ASX Clear taking effect around August 2010; ASX Clear (Futures) was formerly SFE Clearing Corporation Pty Ltd, the clearing arm of the Sydney Futures Exchange, renamed on the same timeline following the 2006 merger of the Australian Stock Exchange and SFE Corporation. Both entities carry a long-term A+ issuer credit rating from Standard and Poor's and are licensed clearing and settlement facility operators under Australia's Corporations Act, subject to joint, ongoing supervision by ASIC and the Reserve Bank of Australia, which conducts annual Financial Stability Standards assessments of both facilities alongside ASX Settlement Pty Limited and Austraclear Limited. Both CCPs have faced heightened regulatory scrutiny since the December 2024 CHESS batch settlement incident: the RBA's out-of-cycle March 2025 review rated ASX Clear and ASX Clear (Futures) not observed on the Operational Risk Standard, and an ASIC-commissioned Inquiry Panel delivered its final report on 2 April 2026, citing inadequate governance for critical infrastructure and a culture that had prioritised shareholder returns over resilience. In response, ASX Limited moved to fully independent boards for all four clearing and settlement facility subsidiaries, achieved in February 2026 after three ASX Limited directors resigned, and committed to building an additional A$150 million net tangible assets capital buffer by June 2027.
