Japan regulator begins on-site inspection at Tokyo bourse after outage debacle
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's financial regulator is conducting an on-site inspection of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) on Friday to investigate the causes behind a full-day trading halt earlier this month, Finance Minister Taro Aso said.
The Financial Services Agency's (FSA) probe comes as the TSE, operated by Japan Exchange Group Inc <8697.T>, said this week that a newly formed committee would draw up fresh guidelines by next March on how to restart trading following a system failure.
"I think it's necessary to ensure a resumption of trade on the same day, by the afternoon (when trade is suspended)," Aso told a news conference. "The fact that there were no rules concerning that kind of thing is a problem."
The all-day trading halt on Oct. 1 was the worst-ever outage since the world's third-largest equity market switched to all-electronic trading in 1999, in an embarrassing incident that tarnished Tokyo's reputation.
The committee, comprising investors, members from investment banks, IT ventures, and a representative from the regulator, is due to hold its first meeting on Friday, the TSE has said.
Local media have said the FSA was considering administrative penalties for the TSE, including a business improvement order, depending on the outcome of its probe.
The exchange has said the suspension was caused by a hardware problem and a subsequent failure to switch to a backup. Fujitsu Ltd <6702.T>, which developed the trading system, separately said the backup failed due to a software update and an outdated user manual for a memory storage system.
(Reporting by Kaori Kaneko and Eimi Yamamitsu; Writing by Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Ana Nicolaci da Costa)
