About regulation of cash equity clearing and settlement services
Australian Securities and Investment Commission and the Reserve Bank of Australia have primary regulatory oversight over cash equity clearing and settlement.
The ACCC has a role in dispute arbitration.
What we do in cash equity clearing and settlement services
The ACCC’s role in cash equity clearing and settlement is to arbitrate access disputes about clearing and settlement services that have been declared by the Minister. We will only arbitrate disputes where parties are unable to agree on the terms of access to declared cash equity clearing and settlement services through commercial negotiation.
The Minister’s declaration of clearing and settlement services pursuant to subsection 153ZEF(1) is set out in the Corporations and Competition (CS Services) Instrument 2024.
Arbitration will be available where:
- the provider of a cash equity clearing and settlement service has a monopoly or significant market power
- in a competitive environment, one clearing and settlement facility is reliant upon access to another clearing and settlement facility.
For further guidance on the arbitration of access disputes, please refer to the Part XICB arbitration guideline.
Please contact reg.access.pricing@accc.gov.au for:
- enquiries relating to Part XICB
- notifications to the ACCC for the purposes of:
- subsection 153ZEH(4) (notification of negotiations commencing)
- subsection 153ZEI(4) (notification of negotiations ending)
- subsection 153ZEJ(5) (notification of agreement reached in negotiations)
- subsection 153ZEM(2) (notification of access dispute).
The legal basis for our work
The ACCC's role comes from Part XICB of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.
Part XICB was introduced by the Treasury Laws Amendment (2023 Measures No. 3) Bill 2023.
See also
Australian Securities and Investments Commission
Reserve Bank of Australia
Council of Financial Regulators