Austraclear Service Release 18 scheduled for 18 November 2024

Participants are advised that Austraclear Service Release 18 (SR18) is scheduled to go live on Monday 18 November 2024.

Austraclear Service Release 18 includes:

• SWIFT Standard ISO 20022 Implementation: As advised in ASX Market Notice 0061.24.01  this release will include the adoption of the SWIFT Standard ISO 20022 for category 1, 2 and 9 messages.
• Enhanced Austraclear Graphical User Interface (GUI): Participants will be required to download the new version of Austraclear GUI to log into the Austraclear system. In addition, for those who utilise the new Common Gateway GUI (HTHL), version 6.19.0 will replace the current version 6.17.0. Please note that the Weblauncher version 2.24.0 will remain unchanged.
  
• New Status Code Introduction: A new status code, 128F - Not Applicable will be introduced for reporting purposes. This status applies to the public offer test under section 128F of the Australian Income Tax Assessment Act 1936. Interest paid on notes that fall under this new status will not be subject to the Australian interest withholding tax. An example of where this category may apply includes where the Issuer is a non-resident of Australia and the Notes issued by it are not attributable to a permanent establishment in Australia. The available 128F Exemption status in Austraclear will include, ‘Yes’, ‘No’, ‘Unknown’ and ‘Not Applicable’. A status of ‘Unknown’ is a temporary state only and is expected to be known and confirmed upon activating an ISIN in Austraclear.  These changes to the 128F field will also be reflected in SWIFT MT535, MT564 and MT599 messages, as well as in the associated Austraclear reports.
• Expanded Holiday Calendars: Addition of four new holiday calendars, expanding the total number of available calendars to eight. When creating new ISINs, Issuers can now incorporate up to eight holiday calendars to be considered when determining coupon payment dates for interest and maturity payments.
• Report Format Update: Remove non-supported report formats TXT, XLS and RTF. The Austraclear report formats will be available to download in the default formats CSV and/or PDF. Please Note: CSV reports can be opened in Excel as XLS files.

Below are the key dates for this release.

What do I need to do by when?

The test environment is available for Participants to perform testing of the enhancements from 30 September to 11 October 2024. Participants that would like to test outside the designated window are requested to email austraclear@asx.com.au to schedule a suitable time.

ASX requests Participants currently sending or planning to send ISO 20022 ‘MX’ messages to perform testing during this customer test window. This test is to validate the new ‘MX’ messages can be sent and received post the ISO 20022 upgrade in the Austraclear test environment, and prior to the scheduled go live of SR18 in production. To conduct the test, Participants must be in SWIFT Future Mode, as the test environment will be using the new SWIFT version.

As there is a new Austraclear Graphical User Interface (GUI), it is mandatory for Participants to download the new version of the Austraclear GUI and log into the Austraclear system on the weekend of go-live. Support will be available on Sunday 17 November 2024 between 09:00am and 11:00am to assist Participants should they experience any issues connecting to the system.

The file deployment version of the enhanced GUI for the test environment will be available here from 16 September and the production version will be available 04 October 2024.

Installation of the File Deployment and HTHL software is password protected. Please contact the Austraclear Help Desk to obtain the installation password.

Need more information?

Issued by

Fixed Income Operations

Contact information

Any enquiries should be directed through to the Austraclear and ASX Collateral Service Desk on 1300 362 257 or via email to Austraclear@asx.com.au

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