Bloomberg outage puts traders in the dark and delays UK debt sale

The system of Bloomberg terminals used by financial workers for news and market price data went down yesterday, causing havoc on financial markets.

The outage, which occurred for about two hours from 8.20am, delayed the scheduled sale of UK debt and saw trading volumes in German debt contract by about a third.

Social media first reported the crash with many frustrated users going online to post pictures of blank terminals.

At around 10am, the company, which has more than 315,000 subscribers worldwide tweeted: “We are currently restoring service to those customers who were affected by today’s network issue and are investigating the cause.”

The UK’s debt management office, which issues Treasury bills, said it had been forced to delay a sale, citing problems “with a third party platform supplier”.

This is believed to be the first time the agency has been forced to postpone a sale under such circumstances.

The Bank of England said its core operations were not affected and that it had “all the tools it needs to carry out its responsibilities for financial stability, and provision of market liquidity, if and as required.”

In a statement, Britain’s financial market regulator The Financial Conduct Authority said: “We are aware of the issue and are monitoring the impact on our firms.”

European traders cited a fall in German Bund future volumes reflecting an overall reduction in bond trading, while some said corporate debt sales had also been put on hold.

“There were frantic scenes on the markets this morning,” said Connor Campbell, a financial analyst at spread betting firm Spreadex.

In a later statement, Bloomberg said: “Significant but not all parts of our system experienced a disruption today. There is no indication at this point that this is anything other than an internal network issue.”

“We have restored service to most customers and are making progress in bringing all parts of the system back online,” it added.

Traders said the length of time the Bloomberg screens were down was unprecedented.

The volume of trading in German Bund futures was down by around a third compared with the same period in the last few Friday trading sessions.

“It has created a lot of disruption, because there’s lack of visibility,” ADM Investor Services strategist Marc Ostwald said. “While Friday is not generally a huge day for corporate issuance, everything’s been put on hold because of it.”

Additional reporting by Reuters