After ASIC have recently gone into print, it would be very embarrassing for them (as a statutory government body), let alone flying in the face of the very legislative provision that they've just made a determination on, if they were to adopt a similar approach in the event that NSX ran an argument in due course, similar to the one that ISX just got hosed out on.
In other words, what happens if NSX (utilising the ISX ingenuity and with the backing of some serious powerhouse coin from elsewhere) do manage to establish a more attractive bourse that generates interest. Too far-fetched and fanciful in October 2020? Maybe, maybe not. But what about a little further down the track? Possibly starts to look very attractive to 'aggrieved' entities that are getting a little tired and wearisome with the ASX. They've had a pretty good run - even a patent only gets a 20 year monopoly. A fair, orderly, and transparent market (does that catchphrase ring a bell?) could do with some fair, orderly, and transparent competition.
By way of analogy, it just took me five minutes to research that Nasdaq was founded in 1971 as the world's first electronic stock market (all they were doing at that stage was 'merely a quotation system') but it 'was unpopular among brokers as it reduced their profits'. (That has a familiar ring to it as well). By 1981, it was trading '37% of the U.S. securities markets' total of 21 billion shares'. The rest, as they say, is history.
If NSX got a bad run from ASX, then, on a properly made application under the Corps Act, ASIC have painted themselves into a corner because any fair-minded observer, on any view, would find that ASX must be seen to be in conflict in that scenario.
Cheers.
ISX Price at posting:
$1.07 Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
