The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) has chosen Elmer Funke Kupper as its next managing director and CEO. Kupper is expected to start with ASX on 6 October 2011.
Previously chief executive of Australian gaming and entertainment group Tabcorp Holdings, Kupper replaces Robert Elstone, who has held both posts since 2006. Elstone was CEO of the Sydney Futures Exchange until it merged with the Australian Stock Exchange to form the ASX.
Kupper has nine years of experience in financial services, covering risk management, international and retail banking. Prior to Tabcorp, Kupper was group managing director of Asia Pacific at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group from 2004 to 2007; before that, he was managing director of personal banking wealth management since 2001. He has also served as a senior management consultant at financial consultancy McKinsey & Company and management consultancy AT Kearney. Kupper holds a master of business administration degree from Nijenrode University in the Netherlands.
“Elmer has enormous experience as a CEO of a major Australian listed company, and extensive involvement in the financial services industry as well as in industries that are highly regulated with important and diverse stakeholders,” said David Gonski, ASX chairman. “We also believe he has the personal qualities and vision to ensure that ASX continues to embrace and benefit from the dynamic developments occurring in financial markets, both in Australia and overseas.”
The ASX is currently preparing itself for the introduction of competition from alternative venues in Australia, following the issuance of rules on competition by the Australian Securities and investments Commission, which come into effect on 31 October 2011. Alternative venue Chi-X Australia received a trading licence in principle in March 2010 and will launch its trading venue in October.
The exchange adopted a plan in April 2010 to introduce three equity trading platforms, in preparation for the arrival of Chi-X Australia and other potential competitors. The TradeMatch, PureMatch and VolumeMatch platforms cover the ASX's traditional cash equities business, plus high-frequency trading and block trading respectively. The new platforms are underpinned by a new matching engine based on exchange group Nasdaq OMX's Genium INET technology, which has cut latency to 250 microseconds and boosted capacity five-fold to exceed five million trades and 500 million order book changes per day.