The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) has targeted August 2010 for completion of the transfer of market supervision responsibilities to national regulator the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC).
Switching responsibility for trading venue supervision from ASX to ASIC is widely regarded as the pre-cursor for allowing competing market operators to challenge the domestic exchange.
Chi-X Australia and AXE-ECN are among the alternative venues expected to launch soon after the transfer. ASX will maintain responsibility for the supervision of the entities listed on its own market.
Chi-X also plans to trade ASX-listed stocks via its Chi-East dark pool joint venture with the Singapore Exchange. Other dark pools such as buy-side only crossing network Liquidnet, ITG POSIT and CLSA-owned BlocSec, currently trade Australian stocks using brokerage licences.
ASX added that 24 of its staff have accepted positions at ASIC to help with the transfer of supervisory responsibilities.
The exchange has also hired Kevin Lewis to the role of group executive and chief compliance officer, replacing current group executive Eric Mayne from 19 July. Lewis, a 30-year veteran of financial services law, joins from law firm Chang, Pistilli and Simmons where he was a partner. Mayne will leave ASX in September 2010.
Meanwhile, Japan-based investment bank Nomura has hired ex-Credit Suisse head Andrew Norman as its new managing director and head of equities for Australia. Norman, who will be based in Sydney, spent 16 years at Credit Suisse, most recently as co-head of cash equities responsible for sales trading, execution, cash trading and research.