Microsoft outage causes global financial industry chaos, banks, hedge funds, asset management, and exchanges all involved!

A malfunction at the cybersecurity company Crowdstrike caused a crash in Microsoft Windows on Friday. Reports from the media indicated that global banking experienced IT failures on Friday, with banking professionals from Hong Kong, Dubai, South Africa, and London unable to log into computer systems, while others were impacted by the inability to conduct transactions.

On that day, Windows 10 systems suddenly experienced the Blue Screen of Death, with computers getting stuck on the "Recovery" interface and unable to function properly. Global enterprises and users from the Americas, Europe, to Asia were unable to access systems normally, leading to varying degrees of chaos in almost all industries including aviation, railways, media, cinemas, amusement parks, schools, finance, technology, healthcare, hotels, restaurants, and more. According to the cybersecurity company Crowdstrike, this widespread Windows 10 Blue Screen of Death crash was caused by its new sensor updates.

The crash had a significant impact on the financial industry, with employees from banks such as JPMorgan Chase & Co., Nomura Holdings Inc., and Bank of America Corp. unable to log into company systems on Friday, encountering blue error screens. At Haitong Securities Co., work at a trading desk was interrupted for about three hours. In Norway, the central bank stated that due to issues with its online systems, they would have to conduct bank system liquidity auctions via email and phone on Friday.

Monsur Hussain, Director of Financial Institution Research at Fitch Ratings, stated in a declaration:

"Financial institutions have become increasingly reliant on third parties in recent years. Economies of scale are attractive, but they may also bring systemic risks."

Reports from the media indicated that JPMorgan Chase also informed some buying clients that they were unable to process certain transactions. Although the bank later switched to its backup servers, many employees in the Hong Kong office still chose to work from home. Some trading desks at Nomura Holdings were disrupted, but the bank transferred some trades to computers that were still operational.

Additionally, a group of hedge funds faced trading interruptions as they relied on banks to execute and settle transactions. Hedge fund traders mentioned facing connectivity and processing issues.

Balyasny Asset Management's office in Singapore was affected, with most trading desk computers unusable and employees unable to log in. As of late afternoon local time, the system had not yet been restored. BlackRock Inc. was also impacted, but the affected systems were in the process of recovery.

Capitec Bank Holdings Ltd., South Africa's largest bank headquartered in the Stellenbosch wine region, warned of nationwide system issues. A group of employees at the Commercial Bank of Dubai PSC were unable to log into their computers, leading many bankers to postpone meetings and presentations Some employees left the office, while others waited for issues to be resolved.

The London Stock Exchange Group Plc was also involved in this series of technical failures. The main platform used by the exchange to publish regulatory news announcements experienced an issue, preventing news from being published on its website, which was later resolved. The service processes around 350,000 announcements per year, with 75% of all price-sensitive news being published on this service.

Deutsche Bank AG stated that its research portal was affected by a global outage, with many research reports still awaiting publication and distribution. S&P Global Inc. said in an email statement that "multiple S&P Global platforms, including securities financing products, are experiencing service issues." The company did not specify which products, services, or data were affected.

A spokesperson for the European Central Bank stated, "As of now, we have not experienced any direct impact and will continue to closely monitor this issue. The ECB Banking Supervision Department is in contact with any banks submitting network incident reports in accordance with regulatory guidance principles."