PSE’s chief technology officer quits, SEC probes trading glitches

THE CHIEF technology officer of the Philippine Stock Exchange has stepped down in the aftermath of trading glitches that disrupted trading activities thrice in the last two weeks and frustrated a number of investors.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, on the other hand, said it’s “closely monitoring” the development in the stock market, including the glitches that happened on Aug. 18, 24 and 25 that resulted in three occasions of market trading halt.

“We have ordered PSE to submit not later than Friday, Aug. 28, 2015, a full and thorough report on these glitches and trading halts,” SEC chair Teresita Herbosa said in a press statement on Wednesday.

As this developed, the PSE disclosed on Wednesday that its chief technology officer Emmanuel Caintic, had resigned from office effective Sept 1. 2015. The PSE did not provide any reason for Caintic’s resignation, which happened a day after a lengthy trading disruption that had drawn flak from investors on Tuesday.

PSE president Hans Sicat, for his part, apologized to all stakeholders on Tuesday. But he explained that the trading halt was “the right thing to do” to level the playing field for traders.

Sicat had explained that the disruption had nothing to do with the newly acquired core trading engine powered by Nasdaq but occurred at the “middleware” – the software that sends information from the base engine to front-end trading terminals, resulting in slower transmission of information to some terminals.

The SEC, meanwhile, also directed the PSE trading participants to submit their risk-based capital adequacy (RBCA) reports computed as of Aug. 24, 2015. Herbosa said: “from there, the SEC will review their RCBC compliance.”

The RBCA requirements pertain to the minimum required liquid reserves to protect the firms, their investors, customers and the economy as a whole. The RBCA requirements ensure that the broker-dealers have enough capital to sustain operating losses while maintaining a safe and efficient market.

“The SEC will provide update after its review of what happened taking into account the full report of PSE,” the corporate watchdog said.