ASX Settlement confirms that CHESS Release 9 will be implemented on the weekend commencing Saturday, 13 August 2016 in preparation for a go-live date of Monday, 15 August 2016.

The new features under the release involve a change to CHESS messaging process flows and new messages, together with changes to the relevant ASX Settlement Pty Ltd (ASX Settlement) Operating Rules and Procedures.

The new features are:   

• introduction of a mFund message suite to facilitate the amendment of distribution preferences between cash and a reinvestment plan (DRP) election to a Registry
• inclusion of Income Statement selection functionality whereby a mFund accredited Participant may request both a Periodic or Annual Income Statement on behalf of their client. Periodic Statement requests may be selected as an on-demand request or a standing request. Annual Income Statement requests may only be submitted on-demand
• functional and structural change to the existing mFund Distribution Statement functionality to now offer Periodic Income Statement functionality. Selection of a Periodic Income Statement is via the aforementioned Income Statement Selection function.
• inclusion of an Annual Income Statement message suite within mFund that meets ATO Tax Statement specifications. Selection of an Annual Income Statement is via the aforementioned Income Statement Selection function.

Amendments to the ASX Settlement Operating Rules and Procedures in connection with CHESS Release 9 have been approved by ASIC. The amendments also include clarifications to the existing rule framework relating to the mFund Settlement Service in respect of several key matters.

Annual Income Statements

ASX Settlement has identified two discrepancies relating to the field description contained in the Part A Annual Income Statement messages (MT957, MT962) versus the correct Standard Distribution Statement (SDS) description.  

The field name ‘Trust Franked Distributions’ has been represented incorrectly in the CHESS message as ‘Trust Franked Deductions’ and the field name ‘Non Primary Distribution Deductions’ has the word ‘Distribution’ omitted from the CHESS message. Additional information about this error is contained under Section 28.7.5 of the ASX Settlement Procedure Guidelines.

Correct ATO description

Incorrect CHESS Messages

In addition, a component contained within the SDS format has been omitted from the relevant Annual Income Statement CHESS message. The field name is the ‘Tax-free’ component contained under the Part C ‘non-assessable’ income section of the SDS:

Other non-assessable amounts

Tax-exempted amounts                                               

Tax-free amounts                                            

Tax-deferred amounts                                  

Gross cash distribution                                 

This omission will affect Annual Income Statement requests where the relevant mFund distributes ‘tax-free’ income. As a result, any Annual Income Statement request submitted by a Settlement Participant in relation to an affected mFund will be rejected by the Registry with a rejected reason code of ‘Z’ = Please contact registry directly for further detail. Additional information about this error is contained under Section 28.7.5 of the ASX Settlement Procedure Guidelines.

What do I need to do by when?

mFund facility users are advised that the change to facilitate the implementation for CHESS Release 9 will occur on Saturday, 13 August 2016. As a result the CHESS Production environment will be unavailable from 08:00 – 12:00 (Sydney time) on Saturday, 13 August 2016.

Need more information?

Participants should also read the attached amendments to the ASX Settlement Operating Rules and Procedures to understand the new requirements and introduce any processes or procedures into their organisation so as to be compliant with them.

The marked up version of the ASX Settlement Operating Rules can be found here.

The marked up version of the ASX Settlement Operating Rules Procedures can be found here.

The CHESS Release 9 Business and Technical Overview (v.2.3) can be found here.

Issued by

Katie McDermott, General Manager, Post Trade & Issuer Services Operations

Contact information

Steven Ball, Senior Analyst, Operations Development

+61 2 9227 0820

steven.ball@asx.com.au

Disclaimer