Singapore investment giant launches inquiry arm for power malfunction case

Singapore Exchange (SGX) has set up a board of inquiry to investigate the power supply system malfunction which led to a three-hour trade halt in its securities market on Wednesday afternoon, local media reported on Sunday, citing Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Tharman Shanmugaratnam.
Tharman made the remarks while speaking after touring the Community Health Day at SATA CommHealth Jurong East Medical Centre, Channel NewsAsia reported.
The official said SGX has appointed independent experts to look into several matters, including power supply and recovery processes.
The service disruption on Wednesday, which saw the trading system of the bourse paralyzed for over two hours, was triggered by a momentary fluctuation in power supply. This caused the UPS systems to switch to its internal power source.
The service disruption hit at 2:18 p.m. local time as the hardware that provides connectivity to traders was derailed by power supply issues.
The stock trading eventually resumed at 5:15 p.m. and closed at 5:45 p.m., which normally closes at 5 p.m.
This was the first time SGX's UPS systems malfunctioned, SGX president Muthukrishnan Ramaswami said on Thursday.
Talking about the incident, Tharman stressed that it "does not help" Singapore's reputation as a financial hub. Although there have been similar incidents in other markets, Tharman made it clear that such incident was not allowed to have occurred.
"It doesn't matter what happens overseas," He said, "we've got to get it right here."