RBA review of Australia’s licensed clearing and settlement facilities

The Reserve Bank has published its 2007/08 assessment of Australia’s licensed clearing and settlement facilities against the Financial Stability Standards.

It concludes that all four clearing and settlement facilities operated by the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) – the Australian Clearing House; the SFE Clearing Corporation; ASX Settlement and Transfer Corporation; and Austraclear – complied with the relevant Financial Stability Standards over 2007/08.

The Reserve Bank has also released two consultation papers on variations to the Financial Stability Standards. The proposed variations will have the effect of:

• improving the transparency of securities lending in the Australian equity market by requiring the ASX to collect and publish data on the lending of equities; and
• establishing a framework for the regulation of overseas central counterparties operating in Australia.