Microsoft outage sends traders back to phones and fax
In Singapore, traders say some banks are unable to complete financing deals as bourses elsewhere report e-mail issues
Published Fri, Nov 13, 2026 · 04:36 PM — Updated Fri, Nov 13, 2026 · 09:34 PM
[SINGAPORE] Traders were forced to do business by phone and Whatsapp, and even fire up their fax machines, as a worldwide outage of Microsoft software crippled communications and snarled e-mail services at stock exchanges.
In Singapore, traders reported some banks’ inability to complete financing deals, while Euronext, Nasdaq and Deutsche Boerse said they were having e-mail issues.
Japanese firms said trades were happening by fax and Indian brokerages said there could be a delay in responding to e-mailed queries.
The outage left Kenneth Goh, who is travelling for work in Malaysia, unable to get market updates that help inform his advice to private clients.
“It has been super irritating,” said Goh, director of private wealth management at broker UOB Kay Hian, who was relying on patchy phone calls to speak with clients. “If the outage crosses 24 hours, then we’d be in the red zone.”
Goh’s experience was echoed by many after Microsoft suffered one of its most severe disruptions in recent memory.
It is still struggling to restore access to some of its flagship software half a day after an outage began, affecting its Outlook, Teams and Copilot systems.
The issues hindered workflows on trading desks, delayed corporate disclosure and even caused Cartier owner Richemont to briefly delay the release of its earnings statement.
Microsoft said in a status update on Friday (Nov 13) that it was seeing “positive signs for server stability”, though services have not been restored.
Trading in global markets was relatively calm, with S&P 500 futures little changed.
Ryutaro Kimura, a Tokyo-based senior bond strategist at BNP Paribas Asset Management, said while trading itself is largely unaffected, “confirmations backed up, creating settlement headaches for back offices”.
“Desks were still getting trades done by phone and fax,” he added.
Meanwhile, CMC Markets traders resorted to “old-school” trading as Microsoft’s systems went offline.
“Everyone was back on the phone, and our WhatsApp chats were busier than usual,” said Eugene Koh, sales trader at CMC Markets Singapore.
“Something that normally takes a second on e-mail might now take a phone call and a few minutes to get through.”
Andy Kent, a London-based broker at Kyte Broking, said the outage was affecting the processing of trades more than the ability to make them.
“This will have an impact on liquidity as institutions will be less keen to trade until the straight-through processing functions are back up and running,” said Kent.
Matthew Haupt, a portfolio manager at Wilson Asset Management, said the firm’s small cap team told him that some trading volumes in equities have fallen on the back of the blackout.
After a turbulent run in markets with the ousting of Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and hot inflation print, traders said the communications failure was another major headache to end the week.
“Outlook is the appendix of the modern financial operations world,” said Calvin Yeoh, a portfolio manager at Blue Edge Advisors.
“So aside from the entire front to back infrastructure of global finance being crippled, and with Nvidia melting down and rates markets going wild this week, yeah it’s been all good.” BLOOMBERG
