The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) executives have given an update on their plans to replace Clearing House Electronic Subregister System (CHESS), its clearing and settlement system, using distributed ledger technology.

In August 2016, ASX completed the initial phase of the distributed ledger-based prototype. The “working solution for subset of use cases” was developed in collaboration with blockchain startup Digital Asset Holdings.

ASX has recently published the transcript of ASX chairman and CEO speeches.

According to the transcript, Dominic Stevens, Managing Director and CEO of ASX, said that the ASX has given over 60 DLT system demonstrations or CHESS replacement workshops to more than 110 companies and over 500 attendees from the global financial services industry.

“All this ensures that ASX will be the best informed it can be about the specifications needed for new post-trade infrastructure for the equities market,” he said. “I am pleased with our progress and the potential of distributed ledger technology to deliver real efficiency gains for the market. We are on track to make an announcement about our assessment of its suitability to replace CHESS in December 2017.”

Rick Holliday-Smith, the Chairman of ASX, stated:

“We are increasingly confident that this technology will help simplify how our marketplace works and should unlock a new era of efficiency and innovation.”

ASX revealed its plans to develop solutions for Australia’s post-trade equity environment using distributed ledger technology in February 2016. It selected Digital Asset Holdings as its business partner for this initiative and recently invested $14.9 million in the company’s latest funding round. It later increased its investment in the startup to 8.5% from 5%, with total investment amounting to $17.4 million.