Singapore Exchange CEO apologises for technical glitch that angered traders

Singapore Exchange Chief Executive Officer Loh Boon Chye apologised for a technical malfunction that angered traders, promising to do better and saying the company will be accountable for Thursday's five-hour halt that attracted a rebuke from the city-state's central bank.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore said it will review SGX's investigation findings before deciding on "appropriate supervisory actions." The exchange has the responsibility to ensure that its system and recovery processes are robust, and the central bank takes a serious view over the market disruption, an MAS spokesman said.

Loh expressed his remorse on a Friday media call that left unanswered questions about the exact cause of the disruption that shut trading early the previous day. Southeast Asia's biggest bourse reopened at the regular 9 am start on Friday, after halting stock trading at 11:38 am on Thursday. It failed to follow through on two pledges to reopen during the afternoon.

"I wish to sincerely apologise on behalf of all at SGX for the inconveniences I'm aware that we've caused," Loh said on the call. "We're not pleased with our own recovery time and it needs to be better. We'll do better."

Loh refrained from giving detailed answers on the root cause of the disruption, saying only it was triggered by hardware and wasn't a capacity issue. The company will by next week provide details of its investigation, including on the cause of the disruption, Loh said in a statement.

The benchmark Straits Times Index climbed 0.6 percent at the close on Friday, tracking gains in Asian stocks. Shares of the exchange operator fell 0.6 per cent.

Loh, whose one-year anniversary as CEO was Thursday, replaced Magnus Bocker just a few months after the Swede was forced into a public apology in the wake of two trading disruptions in the space of a month. Those mishaps led to a reprimand from the Monetary Authority of Singapore. The latest breakdown was at least the third malfunction at the exchange operator in the past year, after a near two-hour disruption in derivatives trading in August and a one-hour halt in October.

"All organisations have occasional technical glitches, the SGX is no different," said Stefanie Yuen Thio, joint managing director at TSMP Law Corp. "The SGX has more pressing challenges to face - namely depressed trading prices and a stream of privatisations. Our exchange needs to revive the market."