SGX Board committee of inquiry submits report on last November’s disruption

SINGAPORE — The committee of inquiry set up by the Singapore Exchange (SGX) board to look into last November’s major disruption — which forced trading to be suspended for several hours — has completed its investigations, SGX said today (April 1).

The committee’s report has been submitted to the SGX board and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

On whether the report will be made public, an MAS spokesperson would only say that it is reviewing the report and will provide a response in due course.

The disruption was SGX’s largest to date: Trading in its securities and derivatives markets came to a halt on that day for nearly three and five hours, respectively, after a “momentary fluctuation” in power supply from substations that power the stock market’s data centre.

The fluctuation caused supply to switch to a backup internal power source designed to be uninterruptible, but the backup also malfunctioned.

The committee of inquiry comprised four board directors, who were all independent of management. It was chaired by Mr Quah Wee Ghee, chairman of SGX’s Risk Management Committee, and the other three members are Mr Chew Choon Seng, Mr Kevin Kwok and Mr Lee Hsien Yang.

MAS had previously said that it expected the committee to provide a thorough review with expert assessments and recommend appropriate measures to prevent a similar incident.