Good morning and welcome to ASX's financial results briefing for the first half of the financial year ending 30th of June, 2023. Thank you for taking part in this virtual presentation. I hope you are safe and well wherever you're joining us. My name's Helen Lofthouse, and I'm the Managing Director and CEO of ASX. I'm delighted to be presenting these results, and joining me today is ASX's Chief Financial Officer, Andrew Tobin. Before we start, I'd like to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, who are the traditional custodians of the country where I'm speaking today. We recognize their continuing connection to the land and waters and thank them for protecting this coastline and its ecosystems. We pay our respects to elders, past and present, and extend that respect to First Nations people present today. Today's presentation will focus on three main topics.
Our financial performance for the first half of this financial year, CHESS, and an update for each of our key strategic themes. I'll address the first two topics before Andrew presents our financial performance in more detail, then I will return with an update on our strategic themes and outlook before we take questions. First, to financial performance. Our half-year results saw a resilient underlying performance across the group with operating revenue coming in at AUD 499.5 million. While this is fractionally down when compared to the prior period, it's a pleasing underlying performance given that the comparative period was a near all-time record result and there've been significant changes in our external environment. This includes the Russian conflict with Ukraine, a sharp increase in global inflation, and the swift tightening of monetary policy.
This performance demonstrates the strength and diversity of our business through market cycles. Operating revenue for listings and technology and data was up, as was net interest income. This was offset by declines in markets and securities and payments. Despite the increase in our total expenses, we saw underlying net profit after tax, or NPAT, almost flat for the period, down just 0.1%. This is a strong underlying result given the uncertainty in our markets. In November last year, we announced the derecognition of capitalized software in relation to the CHESS Replacement project. This non-cash charge of AUD 176.3 million after tax is recorded as a significant item in these results. We also announced that we were maintaining our existing dividend payout ratio of 90% of underlying NPAT.
Our interim dividend of AUD 1.162 per share is therefore comparable to the first half of FY 2022, down just 0.2%. Andrew will provide a detailed discussion of the results shortly. Turning now to CHESS. Maintaining the security and stability of current CHESS is very important. Current CHESS has demonstrated a high level of performance as it continues to meet all regulatory requirements and reliably service the market. Following ongoing investments, it's been tested to handle up to 10 million trades a day, which is well above the current daily average of 2.8 million. During the COVID pandemic, we saw an all-time peak of 7 million trades in a day amongst a number of days of approximately 5 million, meaning that we still have headroom to manage volume surges.
With the enhancements we've made to the system's capacity and resilience in recent years and the investments that we will continue to make, ASX aims to ensure that current CHESS remains reliable, robust, and supportable. There has been some interest in why we're replacing CHESS if the current platform is performing effectively. What we intend to do is build a new contemporary platform that provides the flexibility and the further scalability to evolve and grow with the Australian market. I now provide a progress update on CHESS replacement. As we announced in November, we paused the execution phase of the project to reassess the solution design. This was a significant reset of the project, and we've rapidly shifted into a new mode. We've taken important steps, including the appointments of key personnel, uplifting stakeholder engagement, and strengthening project governance.
We've appointed Tim Whiteley, who has deep experience in technology transformation, as Project Director for the CHESS Replacement Solution Design. Tim reports directly to me and has already made strong headway in developing and progressing our roadmap, which I'll outline shortly. Stakeholder engagement has been uplifted for the project. We've established the CHESS Replacement Technical Committee made up of key participants, industry associations, software vendors, approved market operators, and share registries. This is the industry forum that we signaled in our announcement in November. It has wide stakeholder membership and will meet monthly, starting next week, to encourage even deeper industry participation in the project. We have accepted and are addressing the recommendations made in the independent review of the previous CHESS replacement project.
Further to this, you may have seen the announcement from our chair regarding continued progress on our board renewal program with the appointment of Vicki Carter and Luke Randell as non-executive directors. Vicki's significant experience in organizational transformation and Luke's insights drawn from contemporary customer relationships will deepen our board experience and support the delivery of the next phase of CHESS replacement. I now want to talk about the next steps in the CHESS replacement project. We're considering a broad range of options, including the use of some existing assets that have already been developed, as well as potential vendor solutions. We're taking on board learnings from our experience with the project so far. We've developed the first phase of our roadmap with the key milestone being the announcement of the solution design. Our targeted timing for this announcement is the December quarter of 2023.
I'll explain more about what's involved in the process, and particularly the exploration of new vendor solutions which is driving this timeline. As I've mentioned, our solution design reassessment includes existing assets and vendors such as Digital Asset. We've also reviewed the world's top 20 exchanges and central securities depositories to update our view of relevant technology providers for clearing and settlement. We'll be issuing requests for information or RFIs to a list of relevant vendors very shortly. We're aware that there's no off-the-shelf vendor solution that can meet all of the requirements of the Australian market, such as the name on register ownership model. We will need to conduct a detailed assessment of vendor solutions to understand the customization and integration requirements. This will take time, and it will also be dependent on vendors' availability to carry out this assessment work.
You can expect our next progress update to be at our strategy day in June. Once we've determined the solution design, we'll develop an R implementation plan, a key driver of timing in this phase will be the stakeholder feedback on elements such as integration and migration. Stakeholder engagement is a key part of this project, as I mentioned earlier, we'll be actively seeking feedback from the CHESS Replacement Technical Committee. The committee will provide input on important topics, such as revalidating the business requirements, stakeholder readiness activities, and the migration approach. This will ensure that our industry stakeholders have good visibility of progress and are involved in our decisions and processes. ASX is the licensed operator of cash market clearing and settlement and is responsible for delivering CHESS Replacement.
Delivering this project successfully will need the combined efforts of many stakeholders to achieve the best outcome for the market. As you can see from our roadmap, there's still some way to go, and we need industry engagement for longer than we originally expected. In recognition of this, we've established the CHESS Replacement Partnership Program, which will give up to AUD 70 million to stakeholders to support their efforts in meeting project milestones through two mechanisms. There'll be direct rebates of AUD 15 million for participants to be paid in August this year based on each participant's clearing and settlement fees paid to ASX. A development incentive facility of up to AUD 55 million will be available to key stakeholders who are building to the platform.
These incentives will be paid based on the achievement of project milestones, noting an initial pool of approximately AUD 10 million will be paid to eligible stakeholders within this financial year. The final size of the development incentive facility will depend on the chosen solution design. This partnership program of up to AUD 70 million is a substantive contribution that takes into account the extended timeline of the project and aligns all of us towards achieving a successful outcome for the market. To recap, we'll continue to invest in current CHESS. We have taken important steps to progress the CHESS Replacement Project. We've set out a roadmap for the announcement of the solution design and established the CHESS Replacement Partnership Program. This is a once-in-a-generation reset of this technology, and it's important that we get it right. I'll now hand over to Andrew to cover our financial performance.
Thanks very much Helen good morning our first half 2023 operating result demonstrates the resilience of ASX in what has been a volatile and uncertain macro environment over the past six months. Underlying profit for 1H 2023 was AUD 250 million and is consistent with the 1H 2022 result. However, ASX's statutory profit was AUD 73.7 million, down significantly compared to the prior corresponding period, impacted by the CHESS project derecognition charge of AUD 176.3 million after tax in the half.
The pre-tax amount of AUD 251.9 million consists of derecognized capitalized costs of AUD 248.4 million and related project wind-down costs of AUD 3.5 million and is within the guidance range of AUD 245 million-AUD 255 million that we announced in November 2022 when we paused the CHESS project. Operating revenue in 1H 2023 of AUD 499.5 million was down marginally by 0.4% on the PCP, with increased revenue from technology and data and listings being offset by declines in the securities and payments and markets business lines.
Expenses were AUD 173.9 million, up 6.8% on PCP, mainly reflecting increased staff and administration costs as further resources were added to our technology, customer, and risk management activities, partially offset by a lower depreciation charge. We saw a strong rebound in net interest in the period, up 50.4% to AUD 32.6 million, supported by RBA cash rate increases on ASX's cash balance. The increase in expenses relative to the revenue outcome resulted in our EBIT margin falling from 67.5% in 1H 2022 to 65.2% in the current period. While underlying earnings per share was broadly consistent with the PCP at AUD 1.291 per share.
Reflecting this underlying earnings result, the board has declared a dividend of AUD 1.162 per share for this half. Turning to the business line revenue outcomes. Our total listings revenue was 5.4% higher than PCP at AUD 109.7 million. The annual listings fee, which is set based on each listed company's market capitalization, increased by 1.4% to AUD 53.9 million, and this makes up nearly half of the total listings revenue. Noted earlier, the volatile macro environment has contributed to lower initial and secondary capital raising activity. There were 40 new listings raising AUD 2 billion in 1H 2023, compared to 150 new listings, raising AUD 29.7 billion in the PCP, representing a 93% decline in initial capital raised.
Secondary market capital raise fell by just over 50% relative to 1H 2022, with AUD 30.2 billion raised in the half compared to AUD 60.6 billion in 1H 2022. As you may be aware, we recognize the revenue derived from initial and secondary listings over five years and three years respectively. Despite the lower activity in the current period, the revenue outcomes reported mainly reflect prior period outcomes. This is shown in the bar charts on the slide. Therefore, initial listing revenue recognized in the half was AUD 11.8 million, up 6.5% compared to PCP, and secondary revenue was AUD 39.5 million, up 12.6%. Moving now to the markets business. The markets business generated revenue of AUD 138.8 million, down 2.2% compared to 1H 2022.
We saw a 1.6% decline in futures volumes, with falls in the three and 10-year bond contract volumes, partially offset by significant growth in the 30 and 90-day bank bill contracts. Overall, futures and OTC revenue was AUD 98.1 million, down 2.7%. Cash market trading revenue was AUD 32.4 million, down 4.9% on PCP, impacted by overall ASX traded market value of AUD 732.8 billion in the half compared to AUD 805.3 billion in 1H 2022. As outlined in the chart on the lower right of the slide, we did see an increase in both the options and Centre Point values traded in the period, which generate higher marginal revenue compared to the open trading activities.
With increased equity market volatility in the half, we also saw higher index option volumes, leading to an 18.9% increase in equity options revenue to AUD 8.3 million. Looking at the technology and data business. Technology and data had another strong half with total revenue of AUD 117.5 million, increasing by 8.3%. Information services generated revenues of AUD 70.4 million, up 10.7% on PCP, supported by strong growth in demand for equities and futures data, as well as benchmark and index volumes. Technical services was also up, with revenue coming in at AUD 47.1 million, 4.8% more than PCP.
Growth in customer infrastructure and connections at ASX's data center, known as the Australian Liquidity Centre, drove this revenue increase, with the number of customer cabinets increasing from 369 in 1H 2022 to 388 at 31 December. The number of service connections between ALC customers also increased, up 9.2% to 1,314 connections by the end of the half. Finally, moving on to our fourth business, securities and payments. The securities and payments business generated revenue of AUD 133.5 million, down 9.1% compared to 1H 2022. Issuer services revenue was AUD 32.7 million, down 22.8%, impacted by a significant fall in CHESS statements issued and primary market facilitation activities in the half.
Issuer increased by 5.9% compared to PCP, the decline in revenue reflected lower overall listing and capital raising activity. Equity post-trade services include cash market clearing and settlement activities. Revenue from these services declined by 10.2% to $69.5 million compared to 1H 2022. The total on-market value cleared for the half was $773.3 billion, compared to $849.2 billion in 1H 2022. Total settlement messages, driven by the movement and settlement of securities, fell by 13.9% in the period. Our Austraclear business provides settlement, depository, and registry services with revenue of $31.3 million, up 15.8% compared to PCP.
Austraclear saw a 5.8% growth in holding balances to just under AUD 3 billion at December 31, a 28% increase in transaction volume, reflecting the elevated interest rate environment in the half. Austraclear revenue also includes the net operating contribution from Sympli, ASX's property settlement joint venture. Sympli continue to meet significant development and operational milestones in the half, we recorded a loss of AUD 6.8 million compared to AUD 5.5 million in 1H 2022. Turning now to expenses. Total expenses for the half were AUD 173.9 million, representing growth of AUD 10.9 million or 6.8% compared to 1H 2022. Operating expenses increased by AUD 18.9 million, this was partially offset by a decline in depreciation and amortization costs of AUD 7.5 million.
The largest growth in expenses was in relation to staff, which was up by AUD 10.8 million or 12.5%, with average full-time equivalent headcount increasing from 749 in 1H 2022 to 809 in 1H 2023. Resources were added to key areas of the business, including technology, risk management, and that reflected salary increases in the period. Other key areas of expense growth included equipment and administration activities, reflecting annual license fee increases, project-related consulting and assurance activities, higher insurance premiums, and a rebound in travel and entertainment costs post the ending of COVID restrictions. Capital expenditure for the half was AUD 56.6 million, up from AUD 54 million in 1H 2022, with AUD 32.1 million related to the CHESS project.
As you may have noted, the expense growth in the first half of 6.8% is tracking below the full year 2023 guidance of 10%-12% that we provided to the market in August. However, given our ongoing build-out of technology, risk management, and customer activities, combined with increased assurance costs in relation to current CHESS and solution design costs for CHESS replacement, we are expecting our second half costs to increase from here. We believe that we can still manage within our original expense parameters, today, we are reconfirming our FY 2023 expense guidance range of 10%-12% growth compared to FY 2022.
In terms of FY 2023 CapEx, we've previously communicated our revised guidance down to a range of AUD 100 million-AUD 115 million following our decision to pause the CHESS replacement project in November. As Helen has mentioned today, we announced the CHESS Replacement Partnership Program with a total cost of up to AUD 70 million, which will be recognized as a significant item in our financials. It consists of rebates for our participants and a development incentive facility for eligible stakeholders. The rebate component of the program will cost AUD 15 million and will be paid to clearing and settlement participants as a revenue rebate in August this year. The development incentive facility is estimated to cost up to AUD 55 million, with access for eligible stakeholders based on the achievement of future project milestones.
Approximately AUD 25 million will be recognized in 2H 2023, which consists of the AUD 15 million rebate payments and an initial payment of AUD 10 million from the development incentive fund. The balance will be incurred over subsequent periods and be determined by the CHESS project solution design. Net interest income consists of interest earned on ASX's cash balances, less working capital facility and lease financing costs, and net interest earned from the collateral balances lodged by participants. Total net interest income for the half was AUD 32.6 million, representing an increase of AUD 10.9 million or 50.4% compared to 1H 2022. The group net interest income of AUD 12.2 million was driven from the increase in the RBA cash rate over the half.
Net interest earned on the collateral balances was AUD 20.4 million, down 14.9% on the PCP. The average collateral balance increased from AUD 11.8 billion in 1H 2022 to AUD 12.1 billion in 1H 2023, and the investment spread on the total collateral balances remained consistent at 10 basis points, given the significant levels of excess capital in the financial system. The average participant balance is subject to risk management or interest rate haircuts declined during the half, and this was the key driver of the overall fall in the net interest earned on the collateral balances. The balance sheet of ASX is strong and positioned conservatively with the S&P long-term rating of AA- reconfirmed during the period and a nominal amount of debt for working capital purposes.
Of note, amounts owing to participants fell by approximately AUD 2.5 billion over the past six months, reflecting a decrease in open positions held in interest rate and equity index futures. This decline also drives the level of cash and other financial assets held at balance date. Also of note has been the reduction in the software balance, which mainly reflects the derecognition of the CHESS capitalized software, as noted earlier. From a shareholder perspective, underlying return on equity in the half was 13.4%, down 10 basis points compared to 1H 2022. As I mentioned earlier, the board has determined an interim fully franked dividend of AUD 1.162 per share, in line with our dividend policy to pay out 90% of underlying NPAT. In summary, the 1H 2023 result reflects the strength of ASX's diversified business.
ASX has delivered a resilient outcome against a backdrop of an uncertain and volatile macro environment. We're also building additional organizational capability and capacity to address the current CHESS system and solution redesign activities, as well as ongoing technology, risk management, and customer initiatives in the second half of this financial year. As I have noted, this increased activity is included in our operating expense and CapEx guidance metrics for the full year. With that, I'll now hand back to Helen. Thank you.
Thanks Andrew.
At our FY 2022 results, I outlined the key themes that will continue to be focus areas for ASX. These are the importance of increased engagement and collaboration with our customers, our commitment to supporting financial system stability, our ongoing investments in technology, the importance of our people, capabilities, and culture, and our commitment to sustainability. Our multi-year strategic planning process is ongoing, I look forward to sharing more with you at our strategy day in June. In the meantime, I'd like to update you on recent developments for each of these themes. Our customers are at the center of everything that we do. We're focusing on improving the way that we engage with customers, because good two-way communication and understanding of our customers is vital for effective ASX operations. I want to make sure I'm hearing our customers' feedback directly.
In the last six months, I've personally met with many of our key customers to discuss ways that we can further enhance our partnerships. This process has been valuable and will continue to inform the way we connect and respond to them. I'll give you some other examples of some customer engagement that's been happening, starting with the equity market management consultation. This work is in response to ASX Report 708 that outlines the regulator's expectations for the industry in managing a market outage. We engaged with nearly 200 people, including direct participants, industry bodies, vendors, other market operators, and wholesale investors. This opportunity to consult was well-received and is an example of how we're providing customers and other stakeholders with a good line of sight on what we're doing, listening to their feedback, and involving them in decisions that we're making.
We also consulted with customers to make improvements to our product and service offerings, including the launch of our new issuer services pricing model at the beginning of this half. This structure is more straightforward and transparent for our issuers, with lower overall cost to the market. I spoke earlier about the creation of the CHESS Replacement Technical Committee. This is an important industry forum that was created through our ASX Business Committee to engage more deeply with our customers and other stakeholders regarding the CHESS Replacement project. This diverse group will play a key role in ensuring strong two-way communication as we move forward. Staying close to our customers also creates new growth opportunities for ASX. We want our customers to have the opportunity to access the right product for them when they need it.
We've further expanded our single stock options offering by launching another seven stocks so far this financial year, bringing the total to 89. We also listed 24 new exchange-traded products this half, bringing the total to 276. Both of these initiatives have been in response to customer demands and market conditions. We expanded our ASX DataSphere offering by partnering with Yieldbroker to provide their end-of-day rate sheets on the platform. This allows our customers to access additional OTC fixed income data to help them with market monitoring, valuation, and other analysis. We continue to look at opportunities to add more data products to our portfolio going forward. We're listening to our customers and aim to provide an unmatched range of products and services for them.
ASX plays a critical role in the financial ecosystem by enabling a fair and dynamic marketplace for all. We have strong risk management foundation that we continue to build upon. Our licenses are one of our most important assets, and we do not take them for granted. Our organization is supported by robust management frameworks to ensure that we're operating at the standard required as a provider of critical market infrastructure that supports the nation's financial stability. We monitor our performance against these frameworks and regularly seek input from external experts. Important example of these frameworks is our conflicts management policy and protocols. Our licenses require us to manage conflicts effectively, and there are several mechanisms in place to achieve this, including separate clearing and settlement boards that include independent directors and an independent chair.
We understand the importance of meeting or exceeding our regulators' expectations, given the significance of our role. These expectations continue to rise as best practice advances, and we need to ensure that we're evolving to meet them. As you know, we've had additional regulatory expectations articulated following the pause in the CHESS Replacement project. These relate to learnings from that project, as well as other reviews, including the Financial Stability Standards Assessment. We have a number of work streams in place to ensure that we're addressing these expectations fully. ASX is a provider of critical market infrastructure, and our customers rely on us to provide effective, efficient, and resilient services and technology. To continue doing this, we need to make ongoing investment in our platforms, ensuring that they're contemporary, sustainable, and scalable. One of our multi-year technology transformation projects has been the replacement of our equity data warehouses.
We've built a new contemporary platform, which has significantly increased flexibility, scalability, and resilience. For customers, the first visible element of this new platform has been the upgrade to the Signal B feed, which provides critical trade confirmation data and is now using international standard protocols also with improved stability. This new service is now live. We've significantly uplifted enterprise-level capabilities in quality engineering and testing. This work supported the rollout of those updates and will continue to be an important benefit for future technology initiatives. We're also leveraging our technology to drive revenue growth. For example, our Australian Liquidity Centre, or ALC Data Center, allows our customers to connect directly to ASX. We're seeing an increasing number of cross connections between our customers who use that service to drive cost savings and performance improvements.
Like many firms across Australia, ASX strives to create an environment which attracts and retains highly capable people. There's been a slight improvement in our overall staff engagement score in the annual engagement survey. While there's still much more work that needs to be done, we have a strong foundation, with 86% of our employees saying that they're proud to work at ASX, as they recognize the privilege and responsibility that comes with our role in the financial ecosystem. Importantly, risk management remains at the heart of our culture, with 87% of our people saying that their team regularly discusses risks and controls. We've been listening to our people to understand what's important to them. Flexibility stands out as a key part of their employee experience, and we're investing in our workplace technology to enhance connectivity and the tools for collaboration.
We have a commitment to creating a safe and inclusive workplace. We're recognized as an employer of choice for gender equality by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency. As part of our strategic planning process, we're reviewing our purpose as an organization, our values, and our culture. This is being done in close consultation with our people as they live our values every day. In addition, we're reviewing the core capabilities that we need as our organization evolves. We've established function-specific models in a number of areas, supporting career development and delivering key capabilities for ASX. Leadership is a crucial part of organizational culture and performance, and I'm delighted to have made these very strong executive appointments in the last six months.
Andrew Tobin of course as Chief Financial Officer, Blair Beaton as the Group Executive of Listings, Daniel Moran as our Chief Compliance Officer, and Johanna O'Rourke as Group General Counsel. ASX supports sustainability in all its forms, and we remain committed to supporting corporate Australia in achieving its sustainability goals. We're on track to meet our commitment of sourcing 100% renewable energy this financial year and are targeting net zero Scope 1 and 2 emissions by FY 2025. We're also looking at ways to further reduce our carbon footprint. We're working with the industry to encourage take-up of CHESS eStatements to reduce paper usage, and they're developing our e-waste strategy that includes our hardware providers. We look forward to sharing more on this in due course. We continue to look for opportunities to support the decarbonization of the Australian economy.
Our electricity futures products are an important tool supporting investment in decarbonization, and we're continuing to develop our carbon futures products. We're also under consideration by the Clean Energy Regulator to operate the Australian Carbon Exchange and remain excited about this opportunity. Sustainability disclosures and reporting are also an area of focus, and we continue to support our issuers through education sessions to keep them up to date with emerging global standards in sustainability. I'll turn now to the outlook for the remainder of this financial year. Ongoing global economic conditions and inflationary pressures, combined with geopolitical tensions, continue to create uncertainty. The IPO market remains subdued due to this ongoing uncertainty, which is also impacting cash market trading volumes.
The rising interest rate environment has seen activity in interest rate futures continue to increase early in the second half, particularly in the 90-day bank bill and three year bond futures, as our customers manage their risk in this rising rate environment. Our expense growth guidance remains unchanged at 10%-12%, reflecting the ongoing build-out of technology, risk management, and customer activities. We've also increased our assurance costs in relation to current CHESS and solution design costs for CHESS Replacement, which impact the second half. CapEx guidance has been revised downwards to AUD 100 million-AUD 115 million, reflecting the pause in the CHESS Replacement project. We've established the CHESS Replacement Partnership Program, which will be a total cost of up to AUD 70 million and recognized as a significant item.
Approximately AUD 25 million is expected to be incurred in the second half of this financial year. To conclude, we've delivered a resilient underlying financial result despite challenging market conditions. We have a roadmap for the reassessment of the CHESS Replacement solution design, with an announcement targeted for the December quarter of 2023, and an implementation plan to follow. We look forward to detailing our strategic plan, including the themes discussed earlier at our strategy day in June. I will now take your questions, so I'll hand back to the moderator.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Ed Henning from CLSA. Please go ahead.
Thank you I've got a few questions Just to start with, you touched on the new issuer services model that you implemented. Could you just remind us around where you're able to increase fees, whether it's in listings or information service or technical services, and have these been below CPI levels, and when these are effective as a first question?
Thanks for the question Ed there were a few areas where we review fees on a regular basis. Well, as you'd expect, we review fees for everything that we do on a regular basis. Some of those we adjust in line with CPI. It really is very business specific. Perhaps that's the more detailed one that we can pick up if there are particular areas that you're particularly focused on. What I would say about issuer services is that that was a significant change to the overall pricing model that we implemented from the 1st of July. We made quite a big change to the overall structure of how we charge for our issuer services.
I think overall, the aim was to make that more clear and transparent, more linked to the value that we're adding for the customers, and also there was an overall cost reduction to the market.
It comes in the first July last year, so that's already in this half.
Yeah.
Is there anything that's come through as at the first of January?
I don't think from the first of January. Well, maybe double-check that and come back to you, but not bit springs to mind.
Yep no worries that's fine just some other clarification points. You talked about an achievement of future product milestones in that AUD 55 million of the 70. What are you talking about here, as in what future projects? Is this the actual development of the next CHESS platform or the replacement of CHESS?
Um-
Can you just give a bit more detail on that, on what will pull out the AUD 55 million? Just in regards to that, you know, you've put this below the line or as a significant item, how are you gonna account for the replacement of the CHESS project? Is that gonna be included in your above the line continuing OpEx and CapEx?
Maybe I'll take the first question, and then I'll pass over to Andrew Tobin on the accounting treatment of the various components. For the upcoming milestones that we're referring to, we're really talking about the fact that we still need to replace the CHESS system. As we know, given the pause that we announced back in November and the fact that we've reset and we've gone back to solution design, there's still a fair way to go on that project. Of course, that's a really important system for the whole of the Australian financial market. Really, it's not just ASX, but it's a whole range of stakeholders, and we've all got work to do to get over the line successfully together.
When I talk about future project milestones, I'm really talking about the work that our customers will be doing to connect to the new CHESS platform in due course.
Ed can I pick up the second part of that question as well? Effectively, you asked about how we're treating the sort of the costs of the program. We've called out this morning the AUD 70 million will be sort of classified as a significant item, AUD 25 million this year, and a balance of AUD 45 million into future periods, subject to the timeline and solution design of the CHESS Replacement Program. The key component part there is the future cost of development of CHESS. That will be capitalized as capitalized software like we've done in the ordinary course of business.
At this stage, we're still in the sort of, discovery phase or research phase. There'll be a bit of OpEx in the second half. That's also within our guidance that we've called out this morning. It's within that 10%-12% that we've reconfirmed to the market this morning.
Okay that's helpful two other small or one clarification, one other question. The investment spread of 10 basis points, and you called out that will likely continue into the next half. Historically, you've called out through the cycle of 20 basis points-30 basis points of that investment spread. Does that still hold, once kind of some liquidity moves through the market? How should we think about that investment spread moving forward?
Well maybe I'll talk a little bit about that one. You know, one of the challenges that people who are investing in short-term cash-like markets will be very aware of is obviously there's still a lot of cash in the system with you know, the various quantitative easing measures that were taken. Actually what we're seeing is that for a very conservative investment mandate, like the one that we apply for the clearing houses, the rates of return on that portfolio are still very constrained. Look, I think that in due course, that will likely change, but it's really a factor of how much excess cash is actually available in the system, and obviously that's what then drives the pricing.
You know, that's something that I think we can all observe by looking at things like, the ESA balances, that are being held with the RBA, for example, that kind of gives you a sense of some of the dynamics in that market. Those are sort of the things to look out for when that situation may start to change in the future.
No worries just to push my luck on one final one. You talked about Sympli today making another loss. Can you just give us an update on where that is on interoperability and also when, you know, you're potentially looking for that to break even?
Ed I may grab that one as well. We're really pleased, as we called out today, with the operational milestones at Sympli. We've had some really strong connections over the half. Interoperability legislations moved through New South Wales, which we're really pleased at. We're about to go through the next phase of business planning for the business, and we'll be in a better position to come back to you with around sort of forward guidance for the business as we get to invest today and our full year results as well.
Okay thanks.
Thanks.
Thanks Ed.
Thank you your next question comes from Andrei Stadnik from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Good morning can I ask my first questions around costs? You know, you committed to that guidance of total cost between 10% and 12%, you know, OpEx clearly going higher than that. It seems to be that just the earlier write down of the CHESS Replacement is helping with the sharper, lower amortization. You know, how should we think about OpEx in the second half and into 2024? Should we be thinking, you know, that low to mid-teens, you know, range that was in the first half?
I might grab that one as well. We've reconfirmed our expense guidance this morning, that 10%-12%. We haven't gone beyond this financial period, and as the usual custom, we'll go through our budgeting process. We'll be better informed as we go through that process and provide an update at the full year results in August as to the future sort of outlook around the expense levels.
Thank you can I ask just a question around the rate futures volumes continue to be subdued? What kind of feedback are you getting from your clients, and what steps are you taking to, you know, help improve liquidity and turnover?
Thanks Andre I'll take that one they certainly have been more subdued in the first half, although you'll see from our monthly activity reports that we publish that we are continuing to see some uplift there. The team have made some changes to some of the parameters for, certainly, for example, the three-year Treasury bond future contracts, some adjustments there, which I think have been helpful in terms of driving improved liquidity. What we're hearing from customers, you know, if I look at the tenure, we saw very elevated tenure volumes around the COVID period and the year after that, which was very closely linked to the very significant government bond issuance that was happening during that period. Most of that was around that tenure maturity point.
We saw, you know, as that issuance was happening, very strong use of the 10 year futures to support hedging around that issuance activity. We've certainly seen that happen again when there has been issuance, but obviously there's a lot less of that issuance at the moment. You know, some of that 10 year decline, the part of that picture is driven by that. Of course, the other thing I'd call out is that we're hearing from customers is that the volatility that we've seen in markets has had some impact on people's risk models. There are also impacts in terms of how people are thinking of risk and the scale of risk that they're taking and how they're looking at stress risk, for example.
Nevertheless, as interest rates are moving, you know, it's certainly been good to see the ongoing strength in the short dated futures contracts. I would definitely suggest you, as I'm sure you do, keep an eye on those monthly activity reports, and to see if that growth continues.
Thank you can I just come back? My last question just around costs. You know, you've spoken about CapEx reducing, but when we compare CapEx guidance today of AUD 100 million-AUD 115 million compared to last guidance was given in November, December of AUD 100 million-AUD 110 million, it's actually gone up by AUD 5 million at the upper end. You're talking about, you know, obviously there's more CHESS development work to happen on the current CHESS system and the replacements. How should we think about CapEx, you know, into the future?
Again Andrei, you know, we're in the solution design phase of CHESS. Helen's outlined this morning the timeline around that solution design and sort of the last quarter of this calendar year in terms of announcing the ultimate design to the market. That will be informative of our CapEx program beyond this year. It's a bit early to talk about that at this point in time. I suppose what we've published today is the current thinking of this year's CapEx guidance.
Thank you.
Thanks Andre.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Matt Dangar from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Yes thank you very much Helen and Andrew. Andrew, just picking up on that last point, understanding you're trying to walk away from giving FY 2024 cost guidance, but are there any parameters around what CHESS could cost? You know, where will the investment be funded? Will it be funded from OpEx? Or, how are you thinking about what the scale of investment could be?
Yeah Matt again just to reiterate that, it's just too early to call that out. Effectively, we need to wait for the design process to complete before we can sort of size up the capitalized, you know, software program or the capital spend going forward. To your point around the capital treatment, again, as we've done in the past, we'll capitalize the software where we can. Once the system goes live, that will be amortized into the future periods, in time, and we'll call that out once we're closer to that time in terms of, you know, the design phase to be completed, the expected spend around the program of work, and then ultimately, the amortization charges that will go through the operating P&L.
Understood. Could I just clarify that whether or not this existing review that you're undertaking around CHESS, is that likely to encompass some of the other equities and derivatives platforms that you called out at the last presentation, were starting to age, or is this CHESS specific, this current review?
The CHESS Replacement solution design phase that's going on at the moment is specific to the CHESS clearing and settlement platforms. In parallel with that, of course, as you'd expect, we have multiple technology projects underway in different areas. We called out a couple of them today. You're right, derivatives clearing is also a focus, and we absolutely have a project going on that is also looking at derivatives clearing platforms.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Kieran Chidgey from Jarden. Please go ahead.
Morning guys j ust a couple of questions if I can. Maybe just going back to the discussion, Helen, around futures activity, provide a bit of color across the different sort of contract types and terms. Just wondering if you could talk to sort of broad trends you're seeing from a participant point of view in terms of sort of more, I guess, hedging-type activity relative to trading activity. The feedback from a market point of view was last year, a lot of sort of the, those global macro funds had sort of been pretty quiet from a futures point of view. I'm just wondering if you're seeing any evidence that that's starting to come back in more recent months.
Yeah. I can give you some sense of that. I think, certainly, as I mentioned earlier, with the 10-year contract, we did see a big part of the previous uplift being that hedging of the government bond issuance. That would be more your, you know, for the most part, more your directional users or the people who are actually taking those bonds into their portfolio. That piece is obviously a little bit more subdued with the lower government bond issuance at the moment. That's kind of one strand where there's a distinct change. We're certainly seeing some, you know, change in the mix of different participants and kinda some significant participants coming in, others decreasing their activity.
Look, I think that that's just, that's normal though. You know, that's what we see. It's that this market is very much a dynamic one, where the different types of participants do sort of, change around a bit. I don't think there's anything kind of more structural or fundamental I'd call out, beyond that link that we've seen very strongly with the 10-year issuance.
In your mind, I mean, on a rolling three month basis to take out sort of the quarterly impacts, we seem to be still sitting 20%-25% below pre-COVID levels from a volume point of view in futures. What needs to change in your mind to drive that recovery up to that level?
Yeah, look, I think that there are definitely a few things in there. I think that the, you know, we shouldn't underestimate the impact that the COVID market volatility, the fixed income market changes, the various actions that were undertaken by the RBA and some of the impact that that had on the market. You know, those have been significant, and they've had material impacts on the Australian market. I don't think we should underestimate, you know, the time it takes for some of those impacts to unwind.
Plus, as I mentioned earlier, you know, there is an aspect of there's been some significant moves during that period of time, and as we're all updating our risk models, you know, all of our customers as well as ASX, you know, we do need to take into account some of those stresses that we've seen and those do, you know, those do have an impact in terms of risk appetite as well. I think that we'll, you know, we'll continue to see some evolution in the market, but I just wouldn't underestimate the, the impact of the COVID period and the subsequent activities in terms of, you know, how the scale of impact that that's had and the time that it'll take for some of that to sort of roll out of the system.
For example, we can still see, you know, we touched on the question of interest income and earning spreads earlier. You can see by the high amounts of cash still in the system that some of those impacts are really still very much clear and present.
All right. Thanks. Just sort of on the AUD 70 million payment or program out over the next 12 or 18 months, can you just confirm whether or not that has any impact on dividends or it's just gonna be looked through, given it's being treated as a significant item?
Yeah, Kieran, I might grab that one. It'll not impact the dividend policy. It'll be classified as a significant item, so it won't go into underlying profit. Therefore, as you know, we pay dividends out of our underlying profit.
Okay, thanks. Finally, just on the sort of CHESS replacement. I know you're sort of flagging, you probably have a better idea by the end of this calendar year. Given your knowledge of, you know, the array of potential solutions today, what is sort of the likely sort of timeline period post that to go through implementation? Are we looking at sort of a further two to three year period, or is there a risk it could take even longer than that?
Look, I really can't give you a steer on that right now. The next important milestone is the solution design. Then as soon as we've announced the solution design, we'll be working with the market on what the implementation timeframe looks like. That's really going to be the important stage to inform that. I guess one of the things to note is that, until we know what that solution design is, we also don't know how much change there actually is for market participants and other stakeholders who are connecting to the CHESS system. You know, there's a set of interface specifications that we were previously working with. You know, there is a scenario where those don't change, so the work that needs to be done is our work internally.
There's also scenarios where there's a greater degree of change for the market. All of those things are going to have an impact in terms of the market timeline. Really hard to give you more than that at this stage, I'm afraid, Kieran.
Okay. If that, sort of, if there's a greater degree of change required for participants, will that AUD 70 million pool be reassessed, or is that sort of a once-off that we're unlikely to see being repeated going forward?
I think what we've articulated in that pool, it's up to AUD 70 million. That reflects the fact that the up to sort of reflects the fact that there are varying degrees of outcomes. Significant change, significant further work would certainly, you know, indicate towards the upper end of that range. If actually there really isn't any change to interfaces and specifications for our customers, then the picture would be different.
Okay. That's a cap in the AUD 70 million?
That's correct.
All right. Perfect. Thanks fellas.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Nigel Pittaway from Citi. Please go ahead.
Good morning. First of all, just a question on the lower depreciation. I mean, my understanding is that's nothing to do with the write-down of CHESS. That's just other projects that were ending their period of depreciation. Firstly, is that correct? Secondly, does that suggest that the outlook is for that to stay reasonably low moving forward?
Yeah. Thanks Nigel. That is correct. It's in relation to trading platforms in the main from prior periods that sort of reached the end of life and the end of the depreciation period. Nothing to do with CHESS in this current period. In terms of the forward outlook, it does depend on the CapEx program. It's contained within our total expense guidance of 10%-12% for this year. I suppose the way I think about that, looking out over the next six months, it's broadly probably about the same. If I cast my mind out based on our CapEx program that we've also announced this year, it's probably of a similar amount going into next year. Beyond that, it will be determined by sort of future CapEx programs, including CHESS, ultimately.
Sure, sure. Okay, thanks for that. That's clear.
That's Nigel.
Secondly, just maybe picking up on the sort of comment about the difference in sort of participants in terms of the futures market. I mean, obviously, what we have seen, or we certainly saw in second half with lower principal traders and improvement in the fee margin, that seems to have come back again this period. I think there was a mix issue last time as well with electricity. Can you make just some comments on, you know, what's been happening there in terms of the fees?
Yeah, I can talk a little bit about that. You're right that we've seen some more of that principal trading activity come back in. That's good to see. That's, you know, that's contributed towards the recent sort of monthly increases you'll have seen, particularly in the rates market. The equity derivatives have been really strong for that first half, both on the futures and the equity options. That's been a real mixture of different types of participants. On the electricity side, you know, that's been a strong area of growth for several years that we've called out. That's been flatter this period or actually down a little bit. That's...
In terms of fee mix, that's one of the higher fee components, so that would be bringing down the average fee. Really reflecting, and you'll have seen this in the monthly activity reports, but what we're seeing there is obviously electricity markets, the prices have been very high. There has been a lot of volatility. Certainly, that's been a challenging environment for, you know, for all of the participants in the electricity markets more broadly, well beyond the futures market, of course. There's, you know, there's certainly some sort of margin funding pressures there, which I think we've seen reflect in sort of slightly lower activity.
Okay, thank you for that. Just moving on to issuer services, I mean, obviously that was down, I think 22%. I mean, the initial guidance when you were talking about the repricing was the revenue to be down 5%-7%. I know activity is also an influence, but does that guidance still stand, and is that sort of bigger drop dictated by activity or what's going on there?
It really is exactly that. You're right, Nigel. The guidance in terms of the decrease was kind of on a like-for-like basis. You know, the new pricing model did deliver lower cost to customers on a like-for-like basis. With the significantly lower equity market activity that we've seen, you've seen that sort of flow through to both clearing and settlement revenues and also impacting that issuer services line in a similar way.
Okay fine. Maybe just finally, I mean, just a sort of bigger picture question, I mean, in terms of sort of the initiatives that You've got on and ongoing at the moment, are there any, or I guess what's the most, what has the greatest potential in terms of, you know, driving a material improvement in revenue moving forward? Is there anything that you're feeling sort of optimistic about that, you know, is on the cusp of delivering that? Is it still sort of work in progress, with probably still a few years away?
You know, the piece I would point to, we're already seeing growth in information services. I do think that the investments that we made in ASX DataSphere, you know, we talked today about the Yieldbroker data coming in there, and I think that data generally is an area where we see significant customer demands and further opportunity for the kind of data that we both can provide from AFX, but also consolidate from other sources. I think that that continues to be a really interesting area of growth. And then beyond that, I would really point to our strategy day in June. We're gonna talk in a lot more detail about what the strategy is and how we're looking at things.
Maybe that's something we can pick up in more detail at that point.
Okay great thanks very much.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Andrew Buncombe from Macquarie Group. Please go ahead.
Hi thanks for taking my questions. Just two from me, please. The first one is on the AUD 70 million or up to AUD 70 million program. When do you expect that to finish? Is that just going to drag out over a series of years, or is that going to be closed in FY 2024? Thanks.
Do you want to-
Yes. Thanks. Thanks Andrew for the question. What we've called out today is that that will be tied to future milestones. And those milestones will be determined ultimately by the solution design that we get to in the December quarter this year. It may go over multiple years, Andrew, but it's a bit hard to call that at this point in time. My expectation, it will be longer than one year, that's for sure.
Excellent the second question I had was obviously there's a fairly significant step up in OpEx growth implied in second half 2023. Just in relation to slide 33, can you give us some ideas on where those biggest moves are going to be? Is it all people, or are there one-off regulatory costs? Some color on that would be great. Thanks.
Yeah thanks Andrew I won't go line by line but what we have called out today is an increased level of activity, not only around building out risk management technology and customer activities for the group, but also you're probably aware of increased assurance activities as well. If you think about responses to the CHESS replacement program and the current CHESS system, there's a level of work that we'll be undertaking in the second half of the year, which will lead to increased costs there as well. I'd also call out the fact that the early solution design activities, sort of the research, components of that, will be expensed in the second half as well. We are allowing for the increased expense in those activities also in those numbers.
The key point to note is that all those activities are within our guidance range of 10%-12%, which is the original guidance that we called out at the start of the year.
I think there's maybe one other thing that I'd call out on when you're thinking about OpEx, is that, in terms of accounting treatment for some technology, there was a change of accounting treatment that we talked about last year around software as a service. Given the, you know, given the changes that we're seeing in technology and the kind of technology being used, we're also seeing a little bit of a change in mix of things that we're capitalizing versus some of the projects that we're doing that we're actually expensing. I expect for that to be a continuing theme.
Great that's it from me thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from James Eyers from The Financial Review. Please go ahead.
Hi there Helen my question's related to the RBA and ASIC letters that were sent in mid-December. Two questions. Like, the RBA was asking for you guys to give a public undertaking that you've got the resources and capability to support the existing CHESS. I just wondered, like, have you provided that in these results today, or is that some kind of separate document? Secondly, in the ASIC letter, it was calling for a special report to be prepared by the clearing and settlement licensees on the capacity and security of existing CHESS audited by EY. I think that was due at the end of April. Have you started on that work?
Is there any update that you could give us as to timing and maybe would it be finished before that deadline?
Maybe I'll take the second question first. Yes, we absolutely have started on that work. Remember that current CHESS absolutely remains reliable and robust. We've continued to invest in it. I'm very happy to be doing this work to make sure that we give public confidence in that too. Yes, we're absolutely working on that special report that ASIC have asked for, and working to the timelines that you've seen publicly. We'll be generating that report in April. It's getting audited in April, and we expect to publish a version of that report at some point during May, I think is roughly the timeline when we'll actually have something that everyone will be able to read there.
Yeah, absolutely, that's an important piece of work, and that'll also be a key vehicle for addressing the RBA's request too.
The public undertaking isn't what you've said today with respect to existing capability. That's something separate, is it?
I think we publicly responded to the RBA's, to the RBA's response at the time and confirmed that we'd be doing all of that, all of what they requested.
Okay. Thank you.
There are no further questions at this time. That does conclude our conference call today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.
Thank you.
Thank you.