The New York Stock Exchange, owned by Intercontinental Exchange ($ICE), agreed to pay a $9 million civil penalty to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charges stemming from a January 24, 2023 systems error that disrupted the market open and triggered extreme price swings in thousands of securities.
- The incident occurred when NYSE mistakenly ran its primary system (Pillar Production) and backup system (Pillar DR) simultaneously.
- The error caused opening auctions for 2,824 of 3,421 listed securities to be treated as already completed.
- Trading was halted in 84 stocks, including 81 that fell more than 10% without clear cause.
- More than 4,000 trades were later canceled (“busted”).
- Affected stocks included ExxonMobil, McDonald’s, 3M, Verizon, Walmart, Wells Fargo, and Morgan Stanley.
- NYSE took 39 minutes to identify the auction failure and 83 minutes to assess the broader impact.
- The SEC cited a lack of written policies and system monitoring procedures related to opening auctions.
- NYSE paid member firms over $5.77 million for trading losses and agreed to the settlement without admitting or denying the findings.
Relevant Companies
- Intercontinental Exchange ($ICE) – Parent company of NYSE; responsible for oversight and settlement payment.
Editor’s Note: This is a developing story. This article may be updated as more details become available.
