Clearing House Electronic Subregister System information

The Australian Clearing House Electronic Subregister System (commonly abbreviated to CHESS) is an electronic book entry register of holdings of approved securities that facilitates the transfer and settlement of share market transactions between CHESS participants (including stockbrokers on behalf of their clients, and large institutional investors on their own behalf) as well as speed up the registration of the transfer of securities. CHESS was developed by the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) and is managed by the ASX Settlement and Transfer Corporation (ASTC), a wholly owned subsidiary of ASX.^[1]

Under Australian corporate law, every company must maintain registers of security holders. Australian listed companies enter into a contractual arrangement with ASTC for ASTC to maintain a CHESS subregister, as agent for the issuer. The CHESS subregister is one of two subregisters that together make up the issuer’s register. Australian companies listed on the ASX are obliged to establish a CHESS subregister, and all equity securities are held through CHESS.