On 30 June 2026, ASIC convened a Financial Markets and Innovation roundtable (Roundtable) with thirty-two industry, academic and public sector participants. The discussion focused on how to keep Australia’s capital markets efficient, resilient and globally competitive while supporting innovation with appropriate investor protections. The Roundtable formed part of ASIC’s broader work to advance Australia’s evolving capital markets and coincided with the publication of Report 835 Innovation in Financial Markets and Financial Market Infrastructure.

Some participants highlighted Australia's strengths, including trusted institutions, sophisticated investors and deep pools of capital, but warned that Australia risks global marginalisation unless it keeps pace with market developments. Many urged prioritising innovation that solves practical problems, boosts productivity and strengthens foundations for capital formation, liquidity, collateral mobility and global connectivity in an era of major global capital raising and AI-enablement.

Roundtable participants brought diverse perspectives, but four interconnected themes emerged.

Preparing Australia for a more global market

The Roundtable heard that Australia must remain an attractive destination for listings and capital formation as investors gain easier access to global markets. Some participants supported opportunities for Australian investors to participate in international market events, subject to continued market integrity and investor protections. The speed and certainty of ASIC's decision to allow Australian investors to participate in the SpaceX IPO while ensuring enhanced disclosure was commended as an example of responding to evolving market dynamics.  

Innovation driven by distributed ledger technology, artificial intelligence (AI) and incremental reforms – including compressed settlement and ‘everything exchanges’ – is accelerating, and the Roundtable heard that Australia needs to be ambitious to remain globally relevant.

Cost reduction, removing structural barriers for new entrants and market infrastructure enhancements that encourage Australia's competitiveness in global markets were key themes. Particular focus was drawn to trading windows and the challenge Australia faces due to its time zone as capital flows are globalised. Practical market infrastructure initiatives to improve efficiency were raised, including plans to tokenise Austraclear and extend post-trade processing windows by 2027, and to deliver greater collateral mobility.

Getting the foundations right for growth

A central theme was that innovation – including tokenisation or AI – needs strong foundations, with modern, trusted and resilient market infrastructure a critical enabler. Many participants said Australia needed to “fix the basics” before pursuing more transformational reforms, and be clear on the need, and potential benefits, for pursuing reform when the time is right. 

Priorities included modernising fixed income infrastructure, reducing friction in collateral and over-the-counter (OTC) settlement, improving domestic–offshore clearing across venues, time zones and counterparties, and introducing cleared repo to enhance efficiency and reduce risk. Participants highlighted the need to improve price discovery, liquidity and accessibility in private and fixed income markets as investor demand continues to grow.

Key equities priorities included improving clearing, trading and settlement systems, enhancing liquidity, uplifting functionality and ensuring fair, market-wide access to infrastructure for both established and new participants.

Participants also emphasised the need for clear regulatory settings that support innovation, new products and more efficient IPO pathways while maintaining market integrity and investor protections. Some suggested revisiting existing requirements, including disclosure requirements, that may inhibit productivity and dynamism.

Views differed on competing clearing and settlement offerings. Some saw it as necessary to reduce single points of failure, while others cautioned it could fragment liquidity and reduce efficiency. However, there was uniform agreement on the criticality of national markets infrastructure and the importance of regulators continuing to build on the foundations of the ASX Inquiry.

Prioritising innovation to fix problems and boost productivity

The roundtable heard that innovation should deliver tangible benefits for markets, investors and capital formation, rather than being pursued for its own sake. Some participants called for Australian markets to accelerate progress in areas such as real-time infrastructure, continuous trading and digital assets to strengthen our competitiveness in a global marketplace. Other participants acknowledged the challenge of innovating when current infrastructure is provided on a monopoly basis, noting the pace of change should not be dictated by incumbents.

It was acknowledged that the value of innovation does not apply equally across all markets. OTC and fixed income, currency and commodities (FICC) were identified as markets ripe for innovation to deal with current frictions and issues. This could be supplemented with efficiencies in collateral management. Diverging collateral management practices between institutional participants was identified as an area for regulatory attention, through both resilience and efficiency lenses.

Tokenisation was seen as inevitable, but views were mixed on its benefits. Advantages, including reduced intermediation and friction, enhanced transparency, traceability, programmability and capital management, and atomic settlement reducing risk, were likely contingent on central bank digital currency (CBDC) or stablecoin settlement rails.

Capital formation and market evolution remain key priorities for many. This includes building a broader ecosystem to support a wider range of corporates, accelerating the introduction of products in Australia, expanding derivatives for risk management, increasing retail access to private markets, removing barriers to market making, recalibrating industry funding, and supporting ASIC’s work on faster IPO pathways. Some of these themes were acknowledged as old or persistent challenges, but where innovation might now provide solutions.

Maintaining trust and investor protection

We heard clearly that innovation and investor protection must move together. However, it was stressed that innovation must be accompanied by appropriate safeguards and strong investor protections, while avoiding what some participants considered reporting and assurance ‘for its own sake’, which was identified as a drain on industry without necessarily improving investor outcomes.

New products and technologies should deliver genuine benefits to investors. Risks associated with retail investors bypassing Australian protections, the blurring of investing with speculation or gambling, and technology amplifying poor investor outcomes, were highlighted by some participants.

Attendees also heard that clear rules, disclosures and oversight for areas such as tokenised products, AI-enabled services and new market models was crucial for maintaining trust in markets. Some participants observed opportunities to broaden retail investor participation and access to advice, provided suitable guardrails remain in place.

Next steps

The Roundtable was part of a continuing conversation. Australia's global competitiveness depends on strong and reliable infrastructure, effective coordination across public and private sectors, and a market ecosystem that supports innovation and growth, with appropriate guardrails in place.

ASIC can play a role in bringing the ecosystem together to address structural issues, and will hold targeted industry workshops and engage with regulatory peers before reconvening Roundtable participants to assess progress and practical next steps.

ASIC takes seriously its obligations under the ASIC Act to improve the performance of Australia’s financial system, support economic efficiency and development, and promote confident and informed participation by investors and consumers. To meet those objectives, ASIC is focussed on its role to ensure Australia's capital markets remain an attractive destination for investment, innovation and growth, delivering confidence, efficiency and competition for Australian businesses, investors and consumers.

ASIC Financial Markets and Innovation roundtable’s attendees