Microsoft outage sends traders back to phones and fax

Detailed summary

In Singapore, traders say some banks are unable to complete financing deals as bourses elsewhere report e-mail issues

In Singapore, traders say some banks are unable to complete financing deals as bourses elsewhere report e-mail issues

[SINGAPORE] Traders were forced to do business by phone and Whatsapp, and even fire up their fax machines, as a worldwide outage of Microsoft software crippled communications and snarled e-mail services at stock exchanges.

In Singapore, traders reported some banks’ inability to complete financing deals, while Euronext, Nasdaq and Deutsche Boerse said they were having e-mail issues.

Japanese firms said trades were happening by fax and Indian brokerages said there could be a delay in responding to e-mailed queries.

The outage left Kenneth Goh, who is travelling for work in Malaysia, unable to get market updates that help inform his advice to private clients.

“It has been super irritating,” said Goh, director of private wealth management at broker UOB Kay Hian, who was relying on patchy phone calls to speak with clients. “If the outage crosses 24 hours, then we’d be in the red zone.”

Goh’s experience was echoed by many after Microsoft suffered one of its most severe disruptions in recent memory.

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It is still struggling to restore access to some of its flagship software half a day after an outage began, affecting its Outlook, Teams and Copilot systems.

Opening of the article, excerpted from The Business Times. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.