The New York Stock Exchange has agreed to pay a $9 million penalty to settle charges brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission over a 2023 technology glitch that disrupted the opening of trading in thousands of stocks.
The issue dates back to January 23 when a configuration error left a backup disaster-recovery system running during overnight maintenance, causing the exchange’s Pillar platform to incorrectly process opening auction data, the SEC said in a March 6 filing.
That resulted in the exchange bypassing the standard opening auction for more than 2,800 listed stocks when markets opened on January 24. The error led to sharp price movements in some securities, prompting trading halts and forcing the exchange to cancel thousands of transactions.
The SEC issued a cease-and-desist order against the exchange, finding that NYSE violated federal regulations governing critical trading infrastructure and failed to follow its own rules requiring opening auctions before continuous trading begins.
The exchange subsequently paid nearly $6 million to member firms that filed claims for trading losses related to the incident, bringing total financial costs from the malfunction to approximately $15 million when combined with the regulatory penalty.
The NYSE has also adopted additional safeguards to strengthen system monitoring and operational resilience.