Good morning and welcome to ASX's results briefing for the financial year ending 30th June 2026. My name is Darren Yip and I'm the interim CEO of ASX.

I'm pleased to be presenting these results today alongside CFO Andrew Tobin. Firstly, I'd like to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, who are the traditional custodians of the country where I'm speaking today.

We recognize their continuing connection to the land and waters and pay our respects to elders past and present. We extend that respect to any First Nations people joining us today.

Today's presentation will cover four areas and then Andrew and I will take your questions. I'll begin with the key highlights from our full year performance before Andrew provides a detailed review of the financial and operating results.

I'll then outline our FY 2027 priorities and conclude with our outlook and guidance. Let's begin with highlights from FY 2026.

FY 2026 was a landmark year for ASX with the conclusion of the ASIC inquiry, the settlement of ASIC's proceedings relating to the previous CHESS project, and a CEO transition. It was also a year in which we demonstrated operational resilience as we saw record volumes across several of our markets.

This highlights the importance of the investments that we are making in technology and operational resilience, both of which underpin the critical market infrastructure that we provide. On top of this, we delivered for our customers by expanding our product and service offering and continuing to advocate for vibrant public markets.

I'll talk about these elements in more detail during the presentation, starting with our FY 2026 financial highlights. We delivered a strong financial result with operating revenue increasing 13.3% to $1.25 billion compared to the prior corresponding period.

Underlying net profit after tax grew 5.2% on PCP, impacted by higher total expenses. Statutory profit decreased 3.5% on PCP following the impact of significant items.

The board has determined a fully franked final dividend of 104.7 cents per share, taking the total FY 2026 dividend to 206.5 cents per share. This represents a payout ratio of 75% of underlying NPAT compared to 85% in the prior corresponding period, which is consistent with our guidance that FY 2026 payout ratio will be at the lower end of the target range.

Underlying return on equity improved to 13.7%, up 10 basis points on the PCP. The EBITDA margin decreased 180 basis points to 61% as expense growth exceeded revenue growth.

This included the costs associated with our response to the ASIC inquiry. I'll now highlight the key milestones achieved in FY 2026 before providing an update on the Accelerate program and our technology modernization agenda.

As I said earlier, FY 2026 was a significant year for ASX and we made good progress in many areas. We delivered revenue growth across all four businesses, reflecting the benefits of our diversified model.

Listings had its strongest year since FY 2022, with 100 new entities listed and more than $32 billion in quoted market capitalization added to the ASX, representing growth of 86% year-on-year. This was achieved amid market volatility, which also supported activity and revenue growth across our businesses during FY 2026.

We continued to make progress on our technology modernization program with several projects delivered successfully during the year, including Release 1 of the CHESS project. These investments are enhancing operational resilience, improving customer experience, and supporting future volume growth.

We continued to strengthen our customer proposition through targeted investments in products and services. During the year, our markets business launched options on gold ETFs and new peak electricity derivative contracts, providing participants with more targeted tools to manage risk, hedge exposures, and trade in response to evolving demand patterns driven by the energy transition.

We also advanced the launch of Sofia, Australia's first secured overnight risk-free benchmark, supporting greater market resilience, transparency, and alignment with global benchmark reforms. In our technology and data business, we launched a new suite of debt market activity products, providing data on repo, bond, and money market activity settled through Austraclear.

These products enhance market transparency and help investors and intermediaries identify trends and assess risk. We also supported several initiatives to strengthen the attractiveness and competitiveness of Australia's listed market.

We published a consultation and proposed listing rule amendments that seek to enhance shareholder protection for dilutive acquisitions and changes in admission status by dual-listed entities. We also established the advisory group on corporate governance, which recently published the draft fifth edition of the Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations for public consultation.

Together, these proposed reforms are designed to support stronger governance, investor confidence, and a vibrant listed market. As I mentioned earlier, there was also heightened regulatory engagement during the year, including the ASIC inquiry and the ASIC legal proceedings relating to the prior CHESS project, both of which have now concluded.

The progress we delivered across a range of strategic initiatives in FY 2026 has created strong momentum heading into FY 2027. Last December, we committed to a strategic set of initiatives which included the need to reset the Accelerate program by the end of June in response to the publication of ASIC's interim inquiry report.

On the 27th of February 2026, we provided ASIC with our commitments plan, outlining how we would deliver on the commitments we made. The Accelerate program aims to position ASX as a trusted steward of critical market infrastructure with risk management, resilience, and operational excellence embedded across the organization.

This is being driven by a multi-year enterprise-wide transformation that is structured around five core work streams, with target states now agreed with ASIC and the RBA. We've also established governance as a new work stream under the program, incorporating the governance enhancements from our commitments plan.

It also includes additional initiatives to deliver strong and effective governance arrangements that balance the interests of all stakeholders. The Accelerate program is supported by adjacent initiatives, including data management, technology resilience, and stakeholder engagement, which are the key enablers of our broader transformation agenda.

We are establishing the necessary frameworks, systems, and processes across the organization, and then embedding them to ensure they are effective, sustainable, and integrated into day-to-day operations. As the reset of Accelerate was only recently agreed with our regulators, we are predominantly in the design phase, although we expect to transition into implementation as the program continues.

In fact, we have already made progress in several work streams. Under the governance work stream, we have transitioned to fully independent CS boards comprised solely of non-ASX directors, further strengthening the operational independence and governance of our clearing and settlement business.

We have established dedicated audit and supervision committees and risk committees of the clearing and settlement boards, and enhanced our group support agreement. The clearing and settlement board has recently appointed Lisa Wade as an independent director, further strengthening governance and supporting our regulatory commitments.

Under the risk transformation work stream, we've revised our enterprise risk management framework and risk appetite statement, which is currently being implemented across the organization. For culture and leadership, we've introduced a comprehensive leadership program for all people leaders, strengthening leadership capability and supporting the delivery of our strategic objectives.

Successful delivery and embedment of Accelerate and the adjacent initiatives in the organization will position ASX to seek the release or reduction of the $150 million capital charge agreed under our commitments plan with ASIC, which is subject to their assessment and approval. Our progress against the Accelerate program will be independently assured by Promontory.

With the Accelerate program reset now agreed, our focus is firmly on execution, delivering the agreed outcomes and embedding sustainable change across the enterprise in an enduring and efficient manner. We continued to execute on our technology modernization roadmap, with several key projects delivered over the past 6 months.

In June, our TradeAccept system went live, which supports the capture of off-market trades cleared through our derivatives clearinghouse. We also continued the rollout of upgraded network infrastructure to customer sites.

This investment will deliver a more resilient and modern network foundation for our trading platforms, supporting future enhancements to the cash market trading platform and the replacement of our derivatives trading system. The replacement of our futures clearing system, a key component of our derivatives clearing project, has entered the testing phase following the launch of the industry test environment last month.

A major milestone during the year was the successful delivery of CHESS Release 1 in April, on time and within guidance. The platform provides a more resilient, secure, and scalable foundation for cash market clearing, underpinned by modern cloud and data capabilities.

It established enterprise technology foundations including cloud-based hosting, data, integration, and observability capabilities. We continue to progress CHESS Release 2, with the second of five code drops deployed to the industry test environment last month.

The program is targeting completion of the primary build by the end of the 2027 calendar year, providing sufficient time for industry testing and operational readiness ahead of the targeted 2029 go-live. I will now hand over to Andrew to provide a detailed overview of our financial results.

Thanks Darren and good morning everyone. As Darren said, we delivered strong operating revenue in FY 2026, demonstrating the quality of our portfolio of businesses.

Operating revenue [clears throat] was $1.25 billion, which was an increase of 13.3% compared to FY 2025. Total expenses for the year was $557.4 million, growth of 21.1% on the PCP.

[clears throat] Excluding the additional expenses relating to the ASIC inquiry, total expenses growth was 14.4% on the PCP. Underlying net profit after tax was up 5.2% as the strong revenue growth was partially offset by higher total expenses and lower net interest income.

[clears throat] ASX's statutory net profit after tax was down by 3.5% following the impact of significant items, which includes the settlement [clears throat] of the ASIC legal proceedings for CHESS replacement partnership program milestone expense and the loss on the sale of our shareholding in Sympli. Our EBITDA margin was 61%, down 180 basis points for the year, and excluding the expenses relating to the ASIC inquiry, our EBITDA margin was 63.4%, up by 60 basis points.

Growth in underlying earnings per share to 275.8 cents is broadly consistent with the trend in underlying net profit after tax. Underlying ROE generated in the year was 13.7%, up 10 basis points on the PCP.

Now turning to the business unit revenue outcomes, starting with Listings. We recognize the revenue derived from initial listings and secondary raisings over 5 years and 3 years respectively, and so the revenue outcomes reported mainly reflect prior period activity.

This is shown in the pie charts on the slide. Revenue of $215.2 million, representing growth of 3.5%, was primarily driven by annual listing fees and secondary raisings.

Quoted market capitalization of initial listings was $32.6 billion, up 85.5% compared to FY 2025, with total net new capital quoted for the year of $37.1 billion, up 4.5% compared to the PCP, reflecting stronger listings activity. Moving now to the Markets business.

Revenue of $414.1 million, representing growth of 18.6%, was driven by strong activity across our markets. Futures and OTC revenue growth of 18.4% was driven by record volumes in interest rate futures and higher volumes in our commodities futures business.

Lower average rebates per contract and stronger electricity futures volumes were the key drivers of a 5 cents increase in the average price per contract in the year. Cash market trading revenue growth of 24.2% was driven by a 22.5% increase in total ASX on-market value traded, primarily due to ongoing global market volatility.

ASX's share of on-market cash market trading averaged 88% for the period, which was consistent with the PCP. Equity options revenue was down 1.2%, reflecting lower trading activity in single-stock options.

Now looking at the Technology and Data business. Technology and Data had another strong period with total revenue of $297.6 million, up 8% compared to PCP.

Information services revenue growth of 9% was primarily driven by strong demand for data across equities and derivatives markets. Technical services revenue was up 6.3%, primarily driven by high demand for infrastructure in our Australian Liquidity Centre data centre and connectivity services.

Finally, moving on to our fourth business segment, Securities and Payments. We saw revenue growth of 19.4% to $327.7 million in FY 2026, with strong performance from all parts of this business.

Issuer services revenue grew by 13%, driven by primary market facilitation fees and a higher number of CHESS paper statements issued, reflecting higher activity in cash markets. Equity post-trade services revenue also benefited from higher activity in cash markets, increasing by 24.3%.

This is the first financial year that issuer services and equity post-trade services are subject to the new Building Block Pricing Model. Under this model, ASX's revenue requirement is derived by applying a regulated return to the efficient cost of providing these services.

The revenue figures announced today are net of any over- or under-return experienced in the period, and we have accrued an over-recovery amount of $13 million in FY 2026, which will be rebated to our customers. We provide a more detailed breakdown of this revenue calculation in the appendix of the investor presentation.

Austraclear revenue grew by 15.8% compared to last year. It benefited from strong debt market activity during the period, with spot issuance growing 10.5% to $3.3 trillion.

Austraclear revenue also includes the net operating loss from Sympli of $8.3 million. As previously announced, ASX disposed of its interest in Sympli late in FY 2026 for a nominal amount, and so we will no longer recognize our share of its operating losses in future periods.

Turning now to expenses. Total expenses for the year were $557.4 million, up 21.1% on the PCP.

Operating expenses relating to our response to the ASIC inquiry were $30.8 million in the year and within our guidance range. Setting aside these additional costs, total expense growth was 14.4%, or 11.4% excluding depreciation and amortization.

Employee expenses were up by 11.1%, primarily due to growth in average permanent and contractor headcount from 1,300 1,312 in FY 2025 to 1,393 in FY 2026. The headcount increase is primarily driven by our investment in the Accelerate program and support and maintenance of upgraded technology platforms post-delivery.

Technology expenses were higher, primarily due to higher licensing fees and costs related to the technology modernization program, with more projects going live in the year. Growth in administration expenses was driven by higher consultancy spend as part of the Accelerate program.

We reported depreciation and amortization of $67.8 million, up 40.1% as more elements of our new technology systems went live. Turning now to total expenses growth.

In May, we provided FY 2027 total expenses growth guidance of between 18% and 21% compared to FY 2026, which we reconfirmed today. This includes a circa 5% contribution from depreciation and amortization.

There are three key drivers of this growth range. The most significant factor is technology modernization, which is impacted by licence fees, support and maintenance costs, and technology cost inflation as more of our technology platforms go live and move into the cloud.

CHESS Release 1, including our enterprise data and integration platforms, are recent examples of this. The technology cost inflation that we are experiencing reflects industry trends and is expected to persist beyond FY 2027.

The second factor is elevated investment in remediation and organizational transformation, which includes the Accelerate program. As Darren mentioned earlier, this is a multi-year program with associated costs expected to continue beyond FY 2027.

Finally, we are making targeted investments in customer-driven growth opportunities and organizational efficiency initiatives, which Darren will talk about shortly. The increase in D&A in FY 2027 is driven by the go-live of our technology platforms, including the full-year impact of CHESS Release 1 and moving our Sydney headquarters to a new building.

Now moving to capital expenditure. CapEx for the year was $179.6 million, primarily driven by our technology modernization program, with the CHESS project accounting for approximately half of this spend.

As announced in May, we are guiding for FY 2027 CapEx to be between $180 and $200 million, which includes the impact of technology cost inflation and investments to expand our existing product and services offering in response to customer demand. A CapEx range of $170 to $190 million is forecast in FY 2028 as we continue to invest in our technology modernization program.

This reflects the multi-year delivery profiles of our major projects, but noting the inherent delivery risks in the technology program may impact this guidance. We also expect an average depreciation and amortization schedule of 5 to 10 years for these major projects once they go live, noting that the CHESS project is expected to be amortized over 10 years.

Moving now to net interest income. Total net interest income for the year saw a decline of 15.7% compared to the PCP, primarily driven by higher interest expense on leases.

Net interest income on ASX Group cash was down by 9.7%, impacted by a lower RBA target cash rate in the period. Financing interest expense was 6.5 6.4% lower, largely driven by costs related to our corporate bond.

Lease interest expense primarily relates to the lease of our new headquarters in Sydney, which commenced on 1 October last year, and also equipment leases. Net interest earned on the collateral balances was down 4.3% compared to the PCP.

This reflects lower average collateral balances of $11.9 billion in the year as we saw market volatility drive participant activity from directional to long and short, which increased the netting of their exposure. The average investment spread on these balances was 16 basis points, which was stable compared to last year, and we expect this spread to stay around the current levels for the remainder of the first half of FY 2027.

We currently hold available cash and short-term investments of $250 million above the financial resource requirements of our licensed entities. This includes default and non-default requirements to support our clearing and settlement licences, as well as financial resources to support the group's five other licences, including its two financial markets licences.

We increased our default fund contribution by $50 million during the year to support the cash equities and exchange-traded options clearing business. Other financial resource requirements, which are calculated primarily based on revenue and expenses for the licensed entities, also increased by similar amounts.

We are in the process of accumulating $150 million above the 31 December 2025 net tangible asset value by 30 June 2027. As at the end of FY 2026, we have $132.9 million of capital to be accumulated, as the current period was impacted by the significant item loss of $51.5 million.

We have the capital settings to meet this target through our dividend policy. The board has determined a final dividend of 104.7 cents per share, which, as previously indicated, is at the bottom end of our dividend payout ratio range of between 75% and 85% of underlying NPAT.

We are also applying a 2.5% discount to our existing dividend reinvestment plan. Depending on the participation rates in the DRP, we also have the flexibility to partially underwrite the DRP to achieve our capital targets.

From 30 June 2029, ASX will also need to hold sufficient net tangible assets to meet the financial resource requirements for its two licensed financial markets, unless otherwise agreed with ASIC. These requirements may be informed by a planned upcoming review of ASIC's guidance for market licensees' financial resource requirements.

ASX's balance sheet continues to be strong and positioned conservatively, noting that earlier this year S&P downgraded its long-term issuer credit rating from AA- to A+ with a stable outlook. S&P noted that the findings released in the ASIC inquiry's final report relating to governance capability and risk management contributed to the downgrade of ASX's credit rating.

We have significant financial flexibility, including a $400 million corporate debt facility which is currently undrawn, and we are also planning to refinance our $275 million corporate bond in the first half of FY 2027, subject to market conditions. From a shareholder return perspective, underlying ROE for the year was 13.7%, an increase of 10 basis points.

To summarize our results, the strong operating revenue we reported in the year reflects the strength of ASX's diversified business and we are seeing positive momentum in early FY 2027. With that, I'll now hand back to Darren.

Thank you.

Thanks Andrew. I'll now outline our FY 2027 priorities before concluding with our outlook and financial guidance.

We have three key priorities for FY 2027. First, powering markets you can trust everyday is focused on strengthening technology and operational resilience.

In FY 2027, we remain focused on delivering our technology modernization and Accelerate programs, which are critical to achieving this objective. We are also increasing our investment in AI to create value for our customers and to improve organizational efficiency, and we've been encouraging adoption by investing in training and capability.

During FY 2027, we will explore a range of AI use cases to enhance processes, strengthen controls, and lift productivity. We also plan to leverage AI to improve technology delivery and support operational resilience.

Our second objective is customer-driven growth. This objective focuses on targeted growth and efficiency opportunities while enhancing our product and service offering.

A key FY 2027 initiative is the development of a new digital issuer platform, which aims to improve customer experience, evolve with market needs, and reduce operational risk through better data capture and straight-through processing. Austraclear currently supports more than $3 trillion in securities and processes over 3 million transactions annually.

To meet growing customer demand, we have expanded Austraclear's multi-currency capabilities and recently secured regulatory approval to support US dollar-denominated securities, with launch planned for FY 2027. This enhancement will simplify US dollar issuance for Australian borrowers and strengthen Austraclear's value proposition and create new opportunities for growth.

Our third objective, shaping tomorrow, is centered on partnering with our stakeholders to drive market innovation and help shape the future of Australia's financial markets. In FY 2027, we will continue exploring tokenization opportunities, including initial investments to tokenize Austraclear bonds, which would enable near-real-time 24/7 collateral movements.

The benefits for customers include improving access to collateral, reducing settlement fails, and facilitating the use of Australian securities across time zones. We also plan to publish a discussion paper to engage the market on innovation opportunities and inform the future evolution of Australia's financial market infrastructure.

Turning now to outlook. Although market volumes are difficult to predict, momentum has continued into July with strong growth across our cash and futures markets.

As I said earlier, FY 2026 was our strongest year for listings activity since FY 2022 despite the uncertain environment. This includes 23 international listings compared with the 5-year average of 13, demonstrating the competitiveness and international relevance of our listed market.

Glencore's recent announcement that it intends to list on ASX later this year is a good example of this. This momentum has continued into the new financial year with $8.4 billion of net new capital added to our market in July.

This included the successful listing of FDC Consolidated Holdings, a building and construction company that raised more than $400 million in the largest IPO completed in calendar year 2026. Our listings pipeline for FY 2027 is the strongest it has been in several years and is increasingly weighted towards larger and more diverse transactions.

Momentum in our cash market has also remained strong, with total on-market value traded in July increasing 12% compared to PCP. Market volatility continues to support trading activity and is driven by geopolitical events and shifts in central bank policy expectations, both domestically and globally.

We continue to see growth in auction activity, particularly during index rebalancing events, which reflects strong flows from passive investment managers. We also continue to see strong growth in derivatives activity, with futures and options on futures volumes in July up 20% on PCP.

Market conditions remain supportive with activity across the rates complex driven by central bank policy, ongoing debt issuance, and macroeconomic uncertainty. Moving to guidance.

Today, we reconfirmed the FY 2027 expense guidance provided in May, which reflects ongoing investment in the organization driven by our strategic priorities. Total expense growth is expected to be between 18% and 21%, while operating expense growth, excluding depreciation and amortization, is expected to be between 13% and 16%.

We continue to expect FY 2027 capital expenditure to be in the range of $180 to $200 million, with FY 2028 expected to be in the range of $170 to $190 million. As previously outlined, the majority of this investment is directed towards our technology programs and our broader modernization agenda.

The dividend payout ratio has been set at the lower end of our target range for the final FY 2026 dividend with a discounted DRP operating. We expect this to continue for at least the next dividend in the first half of FY 2027.

Finally, underlying ROE remains a key measure of performance as we balance investment in our strategic initiatives with the delivery of sustainable growth. We continue to target an underlying ROE of between 12% and 14% over the medium term.

Last year was an important year for ASX and we enter FY 2027 with strong momentum as we continue our transformation and pursue new opportunities. Looking ahead, Anthony Attia will commence as Managing Director and CEO at the beginning of next month.

Anthony brings decades of experience across global exchange markets in Europe and the United States, spanning the full value chain of exchange operations, and we are pleased to welcome him to ASX. Thank you and I will now invite questions.

Hi, thanks for taking my questions. I have two.

Firstly, could you just help us with some of the building block model and some of the inputs? For example, should we think the OpEx will be in line with the group OpEx as one, and any other help you can give us there on the first question, please?

Thanks Ed, I might grab that question. You may have seen in the appendix to the pack today, I think it's slide 42 where we've got the sort of the component parts of the BBM model.

We'll sort of publish those inputs on a 6-monthly basis. In terms of the go-forward assumptions, one assumption is around the CapEx that we're spending, and sort of the spend on CHESS will continue to go into the sort of the regulated sort of capital base.

Also the expenses [clears throat] as well, and we will publish the expenses going forward as well for the full year from a budget perspective to let you sort of follow along in terms of the BBM model.

Can you give us any help now, for example, the operating expenditure, should we think of it roughly in line with the group expenditure?

I think that's a good guide, Ed, at this point in time, but as I mentioned, we'll provide sort of further data points along the way as well.

No, that's good.

Then,

just a second question. You obviously went through the cost growth and the three buckets that it's in for next year.

One thing you didn't touch on though was growth initiatives. How much of that cost is focused on growth initiatives beyond the tech modernization and the efficiency matters?

There is an allocation towards growth initiatives, but it's not the lion's share of the sort of the growth in the expense base. It's really the tech modernization, the continuation of that, and also the Accelerate program is the primary drivers of the growth.

We are focused on sort of customer-driven growth opportunities also, but it's not a large part of the make-up of that expense growth.

Perfect. Thank you for your time.

Thanks, Ed.

Morning guys. Andrew, can I just sort of circle back to Ed's question on the clearing and settlement issuer services BBM model?

$13 mil of rebates this year, can you actually I can't find anywhere what the sort of total revenue sitting under that model was for '26. A, can you give us that number?

Then, B, in a scenario where equity market turnover is flat next year, would it just be sort of whatever that number is plus the $13 mil you would earn?

Sure, Kieren. In the slide, we do give you sort of the inputs.

It doesn't have the revenue number per se, but you can backsolve into that revenue number to determine that $13 million rebate amount. In terms of the go-forward position, it really depends on volumes.

It's a bit theoretical to sort of speculate around where that lands going forward. We've seen a strong month of July, we're off to a good start, but we don't know where that's going to land for the full year.

We need to sort of see that play out before we get to a position of determining whether there's an over- or under-recovery in the year ahead.

Appreciate sort of the uncertainty on trading, but if turnover were flat year-on-year, I guess the question really goes back to the growth in this revenue allowance in '27 based on sort of your projected OpEx budget, the asset base, all that stuff, would that entitle you under a flat turnover scenario to retain that full $13 mil rebate in the year ahead?

Potentially, because the things that are going to increase the cost base, things like additional CapEx spend, will increase the revenue requirement. That may be the outcome, Kieren.

Does that make sense? Expenses are going up in the FY 2027 period, the CapEx that we're spending is going up, both of those factors would determine a higher revenue requirement under the BBM model.

If we held it flat, it just depends on what is the impact over the full year, whether that would absorb the full $13 million rebate or would push it into some other outcome.

You said you will be publishing sort of the more wholesome drivers, including the cost budget around that. When will that be released and sort of where?

The cost budget will come out sort of in about October. It needs to go sort of through the various approval processes and that will be made public.

Then, every 6 months, we'll give you an update around sort of the CapEx components and the regulatory sort of asset base of the BBM model.

Right. Okay.

Secondly, can I just ask on sort of Austraclear, I guess the drivers in some of the growth there that have been quite strong in the period, and I think there was sort of a comment flagging some additional product opportunity there. Can you just unpack sort of what's been happening there, and also how you're thinking about Austraclear from a systems point of view, just given I understand the technology there is getting fairly old as well?

I might just start off and hand to Andrew if there's any other things to add there. I think your question was regarding some of the developments we've done there.

The introduction of US dollar issuance obviously adds more collateral flexibility for our participants. The other thing we are thinking about there is around tokenization of bonds and extending the hours of that service overnight.

That'll give us some entry way to sort of foundational capabilities in this space. In terms of sort of, I think, your question around the system, look, it is absolutely a focus of ours in terms of the resilience that, you're right, that is a system that we are obviously doing lots of constant service releases at the moment and we continue to invest in that from an operational resilience perspective.

Is that sort of part of the planned sort of CapEx profile that the group has outlined out to '28 at this stage?

Yes, it is.

Yep, that's correct, Kieren.

Right. Okay.

Thank you.

Good morning. Few questions if I can.

I just want to get some guidance on or maybe just an understanding of the acceleration in expenses that's coming through in '27, how much of it flows through to FY 2028? There's obviously a run rate impact.

I'm just keen to it's hard to ramp up the expenses that much very quickly into '27. I just want to understand how should we assume the run rate impact of the increase in expenses that you're guiding in '27 actually?

How quickly do you hit the full run rate in terms of the impact that could have on '28?

Into '28, Sid. We've given guidance for FY 2027 and talked about sort of the building blocks of that expense being, technology modernization, Accelerate, etc.

We've also sort of highlighted that part of the thinking around our technology cost is an ongoing sort of, I suppose, technology cost inflation factor going forward. We think that will persist into 2028, and that Accelerate program is, of course, a multi-year program, and so those costs will continue to FY 2028 as well and beyond.

In terms of the ramp up in FY 2027, I think even if you look at the FY 2026 first half versus second half, you can see that we have stepped up the expense base in that second half of '26. That gives you an indication perhaps of sort of the trajectory of expenses as we go into FY 2027.

Okay. Okay.

Okay. Can I just ask, is anything going the other way?

I think you talked about some doubling up in systems. Eventually, though, I think the existing CHESS will be shut down.

Maybe if you just give us some idea of how much of the current expense base will eventually disappear and at what point that will occur, and also if there's any efficiencies you can get, particularly on project Accelerate, when you're trying to set up something, there's usually a lot of upfront costs. Maybe if you just flag if there's anything that goes the other way.

I think, Sid, one thing I do think about is effectively sort of the doubling up of different technology platforms and systems. We've talked about that in the past, and CHESS is a good example.

We're sort of running two systems. It's a number of years away, though, before we'd actually be able to decommission the current CHESS system.

We need to wait through the CHESS Release 2 to be fully implemented before we can do that. There's not a lot to highlight specifically at this point in time.

Of course, as we're continuing to sort of spend and optimize across the organization, we are looking for efficiency opportunities. Darren mentioned the use of AI, for example, so that is one particular focus area for the organization.

We also look at sort of the licence requirements from a technology perspective of the organization to see whether we can rationalize licenses where we can also as we sort of progress.

Okay. If I can just ask one last question, just the Building Blocks Model, you've I mean you've got an independent board for the just in terms of running that the clearing and settlement function.

I was just keen to understand whether there's any pushback on the target ROE, either from clients or from members of the board, the 12%?

Sorry, Sid, I just missed that question towards the end.

The 12% target, the 12% ROE target

on

for the building block method, just whether there's any pushback on that at all.

No, that is part of the pricing policy that was released. It's subject and is based on, as sort of a CAPM type model.

It's subject to changes, the movement over the last 6 months has been sort of the risk-free rate, the cash rate sort of moving around, the 10-year bond rate moving around. It's a sort of a robust model that will be applied, and that's accepted through that pricing policy and has sort of been well flagged to sort of participants as well.

Great, thank you.

Thanks, Sid.

Hi guys, great result. Just one for me, mostly been asked and answered, but just looking at the $150 million capital impost that you have to accrue by FY 2027, can you just talk to your confidence in being able to accrue that with your current NPAT expectations and the DRP settings?

Thanks Blake, I'll grab that as well. With our current dividend settings, we've got a high degree of confidence of achieving that target.

We've reduced our payout ratio to 75% and we intend to operate the DRP for the next two dividends, including the final dividend that we've announced today. Through that mechanism, the lower dividend payout ratio and also the operation of the DRP, we've got confidence of achieving that target.

Great. Maybe just one more quickly while I've got you on the line as well, just in terms of when you reset your cost guidance back in, I think it was the end of May, just relative to what came through with Accelerate at the end of June, just maybe can you talk through how your thinking evolved in terms of where you originally set that budget and what kind of came through for Accelerate, whether there was any meaningful changes in terms of how those buckets play out?

Blake, no meaningful changes. If I think about where we've landed for FY 2026 in terms of the total expenses, pretty much in line with guidance that we've set out before, and therefore there's been no change to our thinking as we've sort of progressed into FY 2027.

Perfect. Appreciate your time.

Thanks very much.

Thank you.

Hi guys, thanks for taking my question. Just one from me, I can't seem to see any of the commentary around medium-term margin guidance or cost-to-income ratios, but you've flagged that over the last year or so.

Just checking whether that was an oversight or you've walked away from that. Thanks.

Thanks Andrew. We have de-emphasized that metric as a performance metric and that really reflects the investment profile that we've got in the organization in terms of the elevated expense base that we announced in May.

Really our primary performance metric is the ROE target that we've announced, and that's where we've currently focused, Andrew.

That's it for me. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay. Thank you for your questions.

This concludes today's presentation. Thank you for joining us today.

Thanks very much.