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Proxy adviser calls for Australia's ASX shareholders to reject pay report. By Thomson Reuters Oct 1, 2026 | 4:10 AM SYDNEY, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Influential proxy adviser Institutional Shareholder Services has urged Australian Securities Exchange invsetors to vote against its pay plans, saying executive bonuses were "misaligned" with its recent performance. ISS said that the ASX's short-term variable remuneration, or STVR, failed to reflect its financial results and shareholder returns. "The STVR outcome is misaligned with the company's statutory results and shareholder experience as the key concern", it said. "A vote AGAINST the remuneration report is warranted." The ASX did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It is due to hold its annual meeting on October 22, the first under new CEO Anthony Attia, who took over after Helen Lofthouse stepped down from the top job in May. MOUNTING SCRUTINY AFTER SERIES OF OUTAGES The ASX has come under pressure from investors and regulators in recent years over its governance and ability to deliver market infrastructure after a string of platform outages and other missteps. Its share price closed the year down 23.6%, ISS said, and one-year total shareholder returns underperformed peers and the index. Despite this, ISS said the board did not use its discretion to reduce its bonus pool, which remained at 100% of target. Lofthouse received her full target bonus "despite declines in profit and dividends and negative TSR (total shareholder return)", it said. Bonuses were largely driven by a profit measure that failed to reflect costs borne by shareholders, including A$51.5 million ($35.73 million) in significant item losses from regulatory fines and expenses related to a project to replace its clearing system. Half of the bonuses were also based on non-financial performance measures, some of which were akin to executives' "day jobs", such as employee engagement, ISS said. Under Australia's "two strikes" rule, companies must put a remuneration report to a shareholder vote annually. A "no" vote above 25% is a strike. When "no" votes occur two years in a row, shareholders then hold another vote on whether to remove a company's entire board. The ASX received a first strike in 2024 over similar concerns regarding executive bonuses, but avoided a potential board spill when shareholders endorsed its pay plans last year. CGI Glass Lewis, another proxy advisory firm, recommended shareholders endorse the pay report at the upcoming meeting. While it said shareholder returns were weak, it noted operational progress such as delivering the first phase of the new Clearing House Electronic Subregister System. ($1 = 1.4413 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Christine Chen in Sydney, Editing by Louise Heavens)

ASX to launch overnight repo funding rate. The latest issue of Financial Standard now available as an e-newspaper Investment | / | / | / | / | ASX to launch overnight repo funding rate BY MATTHEW WAI | TUESDAY, 22 SEP 2026 11:29AM The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) is bringing to life a new interest rate benchmark next week to accommodate the strong growth in the domestic repo market, alongside the continuous reliance on existing rates for funding, lending, derivatives and risk management among institutional investors. The Secured Overnight Funding Index Australia (SOFIA) measures the cost of overnight funding secured against high-quality Australian dollar-denominated government securities, based on eligible overnight repo transactions settled through Austraclear on the prior business day, the ASX said. Eligible collateral includes government securities, semi-government securities, Treasury notes, and indexed bonds, as defined under general collateral 1 (GC1) in the AFMA Repo Conventions. The ASX said the domestic repo market has grown "significantly" and is becoming increasingly important for secured funding and liquidity, with the evolution remaining consistent with global benchmark developments. SOFIA was developed to meet the need to provide additional transparency and choice across funding markets, complementing the long-relied upon Bank Bill Swap Rate (BBSW) and Australian Overnight Index Average (AONIA) as core reference rates for funding, lending, derivatives, and risk management, the exchange said. "Together, BBSW, SOFIA and AONIA provide market participants with a broader benchmark toolkit across unsecured, secured, credit-sensitive and risk-free markets," it said. Fixed income specialist FIIG Securities head of research Philip Brown noted the introduction is a further step in the development of Australia's financial ecosystem. "But it's a step designed to help the institutional players understand what's going on in the market, mostly in the market for shorter-term government bonds," he said. He explained SOFIA will be tracking the repo rate which comprises almost zero risk because the loan is backed up by collateral in the form of a government bond, representing the risk involved as a credit risk of the government, not the borrowing institution. "The reason there is almost no risk is the loan is backed up by collateral in the form of a government or semi-government bonds. This means that when one bank is lending money to another bank, the risk involved is not the credit risk of the borrowing bank, but rather the credit risk of the government itself," he explained. "It's not quite zero risk, since even governments occasionally fail, but it is incredibly low risk." He also highlighted the launch follows a long period where Australia had become an "outlier". "Following the Global Financial Crisis many countries around the world shifted from using bank bill ratesets (like LIBOR and BBSW) to using repo-based ratesets for their swap markets," he said. "At the time, the Australian system decided not to shift fully way from BBSW in part because the liquidity in the Australian repo market was comparatively poor compared to other countries. Australia has been an outlier in that we didn't use a repo-based rate for our swap markets." However, the repo market has since developed significantly, and he believes SOFIA will create a new benchmark for international risk management by allowing easier switches from Australian risk to other currencies. "For investors in direct bonds there is very little practical application. Real-money bond investors such as superannuation funds are very unlikely to participate in the repo market," he added. "However, even the improvements on the institutional level do help the smaller participants as it's all part of the overall maturation and improvement of the Australian financial system. "But it's that maturation and improvement that is bringing the big global players - like the recent Alphabet deal - into the Australian market. The more advanced and well-oiled the Australian system is the better it is for every participant, big and small." Additionally, the bourse recently launched Australia's first exchange traded bond and credit index futures in collaboration with Bloomberg Indices, which aim to provide institutional investors an alternative avenue to manage exposure to the domestic fixed income market. Read more: ASX, SOFIA, BBSW, AONIA, AFMA Repo Conventions, Alphabet, Austraclear, Australian Overnight Index Average, Australian Securities Exchange, Bank Bill Swap Rate, FIIG Securities, Global Financial Crisis, LIBOR, Philip Brown, Secured Overnight Funding Index Australia VIEW COMMENTS Related News | | | Dexus chief financial officer steps down | | | | Macquarie Asset Management launches 10th ETF | | | | Former adviser charged further on dishonest conduct | | | | GQG outflows worsen, ousted from ASX200 | | | | NSX to focus on dual listings over the next 12 months | | | | State Street appoints head of Asia Pacific | | | | Is demand for active ETPs genuine beyond outlier conversions? | | | | Former UBS Asset Management executive pops up at RAM | | | | Kaplan winds up pooled super trust | | | | Pacific Current eyes return to active management Editor's choice. Minister for financial services Daniel Mulino has launched a consultation into the CSLR seeking feedback around the distributions of the 2026-27 special levy. Equity Trustees' parent company EQT Holdings' board confirmed it is engaging with its two bidders - TPG Global and BGH Capital - and has pushed for an improved offer from both. Under the proposed minimum tax on discretionary trust reforms, the Financial Advice Association Australia (FAAA) highlighted concerns over trustees potentially being forced to make "major and largely irreversible decisions" before the rules and guidance have been finalised. Australia's economy will continue to stagnate over the next 40 years, growing at just 2% annually, according to the latest Intergenerational Report (IGR), which points to the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution to buoy sagging productivity. Further Reading