FIA EPTA has joined the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) and the European Funds and Management Association (EFAMA) in a call on stock exchanges to improve outage management.
The associations, representing European exchange participants, are urging full and consistent implementation of outage protocols, following a series of significant trading disruptions that have impacted the orderly functioning of equity markets.
To support more resilient markets, the associations outline four key principles:
• Order status clarity – Exchanges must provide accurate and consistent information on market status, instrument prices, orders, and trades, with a clear “outage/closed” status to avoid misleading participants.
• Regular updates – Exchanges should communicate at least every 15 minutes during an outage, simultaneously to all participants, and in machine-readable formats that can be integrated into trading systems.
• Reopening procedures – Reopening times should be communicated at least 15 minutes in advance on “round” time increments, with prior consultation with participants and consideration of an order book purge if necessary.
• Closing auctions – Exchanges should give 30 minutes’ notice on whether a closing auction will be held, with clear fallback arrangements to provide closing prices if systems remain down.
The associations highlight that confidence in Europe’s capital markets depends on transparency and reliability. Adhering to established outage protocols is critical to safeguarding investor trust, maintaining orderly markets, and supporting Europe’s competitiveness.
Read the press release in full here.
