It is reported that the financial authorities are examining the cause of an unprecedented incident in which transactions in the securities (KOSPI) market were halted for about 7 minutes, related to a computer system failure at the Korea Exchange.
According to financial authorities on the 23rd, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) is assessing the situation regarding the computer failure at the Korea Exchange and considering whether an inspection is necessary. If needed, the authorities plan to clarify the cause of the incident and the extent of the damage through an inspection of the exchange. Additionally, the FSS is expected to comprehensively review the overall system safety since the launch of Next Trade.
Inspections of the Korea Exchange are generally carried out by the Financial Supervisory Service at the request of the Financial Services Commission. However, the Electronic Financial Transactions Act stipulates that the Financial Supervisory Service can inspect the electronic financial operations and related financial status of financial institutions and electronic financial service providers.
Earlier, on the 18th, an incident occurred in which KOSPI stock transactions were halted for about 7 minutes due to errors in the transaction system of the Korea Exchange. It was the first time since the integrated launch of the Korea Exchange in 2005 that all trading was 'downtrodden.'
The exchange explained that the cause of the computer failure was due to a conflict between the 'mid-price quote' introduced with the launch of the alternative exchange, Next Trade, and the existing logic. As the number of listed products on Next Trade increases to 800 on the 31st, there are concerns that similar incidents may occur.
The FSS conducted inspections of the exchange's transaction system in 2014 as well. On July 15, 2013, an incident occurred where the KOSPI index was delayed in transmission to the home trading system (HTS) of securities firms. The next day, when some servers related to market operations stopped, trading in the overnight futures market linked to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) was halted 3 hours earlier than scheduled. In September of the same year, there was a delay in transaction execution for 183 items for about 55 minutes right after the market opened.
In 2021, the FSS conducted inspections of key operations such as the market maker system at the Korea Exchange. At that time, it was the first comprehensive inspection of the Korea Exchange's operations in 11 years.