From Hong Kong and Dubai to South Africa and London, bankers in multiple locations are affected by a global IT outage, with some unable to log into computer systems and others unable to trade.
Employees of banks such as JPMorgan, Nomura, and Bank of America were unable to log in to their company's system on Friday, and many of their interfaces turned into blue error screens. At Haitong Securities, one trading desk was shut down for about three hours. Norway's central bank said it would have to conduct liquidity auctions via email and phone due to problems with its network system.
The disruption is related to a widely-used cybersecurity program update failure by CrowdStrike Holdings Inc., which directly led to the Microsoft system crash. CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said that the malfunction had been identified, and repair measures had been deployed. This was not a cyberattack. Companies such as medical systems, airlines, and McDonald's have also been affected by network failures.
"Financial institutions' reliance on third parties has increased in recent years," said Monsur Hussain, head of financial institution research at Fitch Ratings. "Economies of scale are impressive, but they may also bring systemic risks."
The impact on individual companies was mainly understood through interviews with insiders who requested anonymity due to discussions of non-public information.
JPMorgan told some buying clients that it was unable to process certain trades. Although the bank later switched to backup servers, many staff members in Hong Kong were still forced to work from home. At Nomura, some trading desks were disrupted and the bank moved some trades to personal computers that were operating normally.
Some hedge funds that rely on banks to execute and settle trades also faced disruptions. Hedge fund traders said they were having connectivity and processing issues. Bloomberg terminals were running normally.
Employees at Balyasny Asset Management's Singapore office were affected. Most trading desk computers crashed, and employees were unable to log in. The system had not been restored as of late afternoon local time. BlackRock was also affected, but the system was starting to recover.
Representatives of JPMorgan, Bank of America, Haitong, Balyasny, BlackRock, and Nomura declined to comment. A spokesperson for Commercial Bank of Dubai did not respond to requests for comment.