LSE says human error, not sabotage, caused crash

Thursday, 13 January 2011 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

London (Reuters): The London Stock Exchange said human error rather than sabotage was to blame for the crash of its European trading platform last November, which it had partly blamed for a three-month delay in a key systems upgrade.

The LSE notified the police and launched an investigation after its Turquoise trading system buckled on 2 November, citing “suspicious circumstances” it said helped prompt a delay of a later technology upgrade originally slated for mid-November.

But it said on Tuesday: “The investigation found the incident was the result of human error and the incident has now been closed”.

A spokesman said the LSE now planned to migrate its main British equity market to new Millennium technology on 14 February after dress rehearsals on 29 January and 5 February.

LSE clients said last November they believed the LSE had been set to delay the wider systems upgrade, which will speed up trading times, before Turquoise crashed for two hours when it tried to open for normal trade.

Some of the exchange’s largest trading members welcomed the new upgrade date, saying they had long completed their preparations for the planned changeover.

“We have done all our internal work to offer clients faster access to the main LSE market but the systems have been gathering dust since November,” said the head of trading at one of the largest trading firms on the LSE.

The British exchange moved its smaller Turquoise system to Millennium in October as a dry run for the planned migration of its larger British order book Sets on 15 November.

The LSE wants to move its two main trading systems to the Millennium IT to enable members to seal deals more quickly and in higher volumes, which it hopes will attract more business from high-frequency trading firms.