Key Highlights

  • The RBA made no new recommendations in its 2025/26 assessment of ASX facilities.
  • All four facilities were rated partly observed on three standards.
  • Outstanding recommendations have been consolidated into the ASX Transformation Portfolio.
  • The assessment emphasises cyber resilience and operational risk.

The Reserve Bank's 2025/26 assessment of ASX's four clearing and settlement facilities made no new recommendations, but left key ratings at "partly observed", with modest upgrades on operational risk for two facilities.

Every year the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) assesses the facilities that clear and settle trades on Australia's main securities exchange. These are not household names, but they sit at the centre of the financial system. When shares change hands or certain securities and Derivatives are traded, it is these facilities that make sure the obligations on each side are met.

The RBA's 2025/26 assessment, published in September 2026 and covering the period from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026, reads in parts like a school report card. Some grades held where they were, a couple of marks improved, and the assessor chose not to set new homework.

The assessment covers four ASX facilities:

  • ASX Clear
  • ASX Clear (Futures)
  • ASX Settlement
  • Austraclear

ASX Clear and ASX Clear (Futures) are the two central counterparties, or CCPs. A central counterparty stands between the buyer and the seller in a trade, so that each side deals with the CCP rather than directly with each other. ASX Settlement and Austraclear are settlement facilities, handling the final transfer of securities and funds.

The grades

The headline finding is the persistence of the "partly observed" rating across several standards. According to the assessment, all four facilities were rated "partly observed" on three standards:

  • Governance
  • Framework for the Comprehensive Management of Risks
  • Operational Risk

In addition, Credit Risk was rated partly observed for both CCPs, ASX Clear and ASX Clear (Futures).

"Partly observed" means a Facility is not meeting a standard in full. It is not a top grade. That the rating applies across all four facilities on governance, risk management framework and operational risk signals that these are areas where the RBA continues to see work to be done.

There was some movement. The assessment upgraded the Operational Risk rating for ASX Clear and ASX Settlement. Both facilities nonetheless remain at "partly observed" on that standard. In report card terms, the mark improved within the same grade band rather than moving up a band.

Why no new recommendations

The sentence likely to attract the most attention is a short one: "The RBA has not made new recommendations in this assessment."

At first glance, that might seem at odds with ratings that remain at partly observed. The assessment explains the context: outstanding recommendations have been consolidated into the ASX Transformation Portfolio. In other words, rather than adding fresh recommendations on top of existing ones, the RBA has grouped the outstanding items within a single program of work.

This is a structural choice, not a clean bill of health. The outstanding recommendations still exist; they are being pursued through the transformation portfolio rather than listed as new items. For observers, the useful question is not whether there are new recommendations, but how the transformation portfolio progresses against the outstanding ones over time.

Supervisory focus: cyber and major projects

Beyond the ratings, the assessment sets out where the RBA's supervisory attention will be directed. It states that "Cyber resilience will remain a supervisory priority". The supervisory focus also includes CHESS Replacement Release 2 and ClearStar.

Both are ASX projects that the RBA has chosen to name explicitly as areas of supervisory attention, which signals their importance to the facilities' future operation.

The emphasis on cyber resilience echoes the RBA's wider financial stability work. The October 2026 Financial Stability Review flagged operational and cyber risk, while judging that "the Australian financial system remains resilient, but there's no room for complacency." Market infrastructure that clears and settles trades is precisely the sort of system where operational and cyber resilience matter, because disruptions could spread across many participants at once.

Why it matters beyond the market

For an individual investor, the ASX assessment can feel remote. Yet the facilities it covers are the reason a share purchase ultimately results in a transfer of ownership, and the reason the money moves where it should. Superannuation funds, banks, Brokers and other institutions all depend on them.

That makes the quality of their governance, risk management and operational resilience a matter of broader public interest. A "partly observed" rating does not mean a facility is failing to operate, and the assessment should not be read as a warning that trades are at risk. It means the RBA judges that the facility does not yet fully meet the relevant standard, and expects continued improvement.

The FSR's broader observation that "The principal risks are increasingly coming from abroad" is a reminder that domestic infrastructure is one part of a wider risk picture. Domestic resilience matters in part because it helps the system absorb shocks that originate elsewhere.

A balanced reading of the assessment includes several elements at once:

  • Ratings on governance, the risk management framework and operational risk remained at partly observed for all four facilities.
  • Credit risk remained partly observed for both CCPs.
  • Operational risk improved for ASX Clear and ASX Settlement, though both stayed partly observed.
  • No new recommendations were made, with outstanding items consolidated into the ASX Transformation Portfolio.
  • Cyber resilience, CHESS Replacement Release 2 and ClearStar are areas of continuing supervisory focus.

The bottom line

The RBA's 2025/26 assessment of ASX's clearing and settlement facilities shows incremental progress without a change in the headline grades. All four facilities remain partly observed on governance, comprehensive risk management and operational risk, and both CCPs remain partly observed on credit risk. Upgrades on operational risk for ASX Clear and ASX Settlement point to improvement within that rating. The absence of new recommendations reflects the consolidation of outstanding ones into the ASX Transformation Portfolio, which will be the main measure of progress in future assessments.