According to Deutsche Börse, the error in the operating system caused access to be temporarily denied to those files which handle the access rights for the electronic trading system. Hence Deutsche Börse had interrupted trading in Xetra on Tuesday at 3.10 PM and thus ensured that all participants were treated equally, and the market still operated fairly and correctly. As soon as the error was removed, trading was resumed at 6.30 PM without further disruptions.
Volker Potthoff, the board member at Deutsche Börse responsible for stock trading, said on Wednesday in Frankfurt, " On Tuesday our system did not fulfill the high standards we demand. We will do our utmost to ensure that we offer our customers the high standards they expect." Our primary goal should be to ensure as far as possible that errors do not happen. In each case, disruptions should be as short as possible, said Mr. Potthoff. Against this background, Deutsche Börse plans to further increase the error tolerance of its systems, and especially plans to minimize the time needed to restart systems after a halt.
Xetra has been in operation at Deutsche Börse since the end of November 1997. The trading interruption on Tuesday - the second halt in Xetra's history - caused system access for the entire time to drop slightly from 99.98 percent to 99.94 percent. A total of 430 participants from 18 countries trade in Xetra. Around 15,750 stocks, warrants and bonds are tradable in the system.
