Different systems blamed for recent errors at securities companies

Investors at a trading floor of SSI Securities Co. SSI said that from the beginning of the afternoon session on Wednesday, the system was fixed. — VNA/VNS Photo

Recent errors during trading at some securities companies were due to their different technology systems, said Lê Hải Trà, General Director of Hồ Chí Minh City Stock Exchange (HoSE).

“HoSE and FPT are closely monitoring the situation to support securities companies to overcome internal errors as soon as possible,” he said.

A series of securities companies have encountered errors since Monday when the new transaction system for the HoSE was officially launched.

The new transaction system, provided by IT firm FPT, is designed to process three to five million orders per session, which is expected to be able to address the current overloading issue on the previous system.

Under the new system, while investors noted trading activities went smoothly without any crashes, there were still minor issues, such as delays in updating transaction volume and prices in real-time at securities firms at the beginning of the morning session.

SSI Securities Incorporation (SSI) attributed the errors to the incompatible trading systems of the companies with HoSE’s new system, leading to slow login process, inaccurate data, and slow updates of order status.

In addition to SSI, investors also have had trouble trading on the systems of VNDirect Securities Joint Stock Company, VPS Securities Joint Stock Company, Technological Securities Joint Stock Company, and FPT Securities Joint Stock Company. These companies also encountered difficulties in logging in and slow responses at the beginning of the session.

After detecting the errors, SSI's technology team quickly identified the causes and fixed them.

SSI said that from the beginning of the afternoon session on Wednesday, the trading floor at SSI was fixed and re-opened to serve investors.

“The newly-applied trading system on HOSE is still operating stably. The errors occurring internally at some securities companies were due to different technology systems,” said Lê Hải Trà.

“Currently, HoSE and FPT are working closely to support securities companies with errors to fix them as soon as possible to meet the trading needs of investors,” Trà said.

Dương Dũng Triều, Chairman of FPT Information System Co Ltd (FPT IS), also said that there was no conflict between HoSE’s new and old systems. The new system also requires no upgrades to the IT infrastructure of securities companies, he said.

“There is no conflict, only the speed and frequency of returning information to securities companies is now higher than before, so HoSE has allowed a certain delay during the recent testing period so securities companies can review their system and consider whether or not to adjust it. We have to find out and improve together,” Triều said.

In the past six months, a rise in transaction orders well above the limit of up to 900,000 transactions per day has been behind frequent crashes on HoSE’s current trading system, causing frustration among investors.

The new system by FPT is among solutions to address the overloading issue when a surge of orders forces the stock exchange to halt trading.

Along with the system developed by FPT, HoSE is testing a new stock trading system from the Korea Exchange from June 14-August 6, with a view for it to be launched later this year.

Once the process is completed, this would replace the system from FPT. — VNS