Members Exchange resolves tech issue that delayed premarket trading

(Reuters) -Exchange operator Members Exchange (MEMX), backed by some of the biggest Wall Street firms, said it has resolved a technical issue that delayed the start of its pre-market trading session for nearly two hours before Tuesday's open.

MEMX Equities delayed the opening to 08:45 a.m. ET, later than the usual 7:00 a.m. ET, as the stock exchange encountered an issue related to a software error.

MEMX said the error had prompted it to accept orders for nearly four minutes from 6.50 am ET to 6.54 am ET, but no trades occurred during that period.

The issue was not tied to the move to T+1, the shorter settlement cycle for securities transactions that came into effect on Tuesday, according to a source familiar with the matter.

"The exchange has instituted corrective procedures to prevent a recurrence while the software error is remediated. No further impact related to this issue is expected," MEMX said.

The New York Stock Exchange, Cboe Global Markets and Nasdaq were among the exchange operators that disabled routing to Members Exchange during pre-market trading before resuming it after a brief pause.

The issue also led to self-help declarations from the NYSE and Cboe against Members Exchange. Both were revoked later.

A "self-help" is a notification issued by a trading exchange when another exchange is dealing with internal problems in processing trades and orders are routed through alternate venues.

Nasdaq, NYSE and CBOE did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.

MEMX was founded in 2019 by a consortium of Wall Street firms including investment bank Morgan Stanley, fund manager Fidelity and brokerage firm Charles Schwab, among others.

(Reporting by Arasu Kannagi Basil and Pritam Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)