A significant Microsoft service outage has disrupted financial operations across global markets, impacting services such as Outlook, Teams, and other Microsoft 365 applications. As a result, traders and financial institutions worldwide have had to resort to phone calls, WhatsApp, and faxes to sustain communication and execute transactions.
The outage has posed challenges for trading desks, delayed trade confirmations, and created settlement issues for financial entities in countries including Australia, Singapore, Japan, and India. In Singapore, traders encountered difficulties in completing financing deals, while certain Indian brokerages cautioned clients about potential delays in email query responses. Japan’s Finance Ministry also experienced email disruptions affecting its routine communications.
Despite the disruptions, trading activities have mostly persisted, though financial professionals have reported delays in processing confirmations and accessing brokerage reports and trading platforms that require email authentication. Several companies have faced operational difficulties; for instance, Australia’s stock exchange operator confirmed some Microsoft 365 services were affected, though its exchange operations remained unaffected. Similarly, U.S. manufacturer Workhorse Group postponed its earnings announcement due to the outage.
Microsoft has stated that it is making progress in restoring the affected infrastructure while investigating the cause of the disruption. The incident has sparked approximately 200,000 user reports on Downdetector, marking it as one of Microsoft’s major service disruptions.
This event has underscored the financial industry’s reliance on digital communication platforms and the challenges businesses face when essential technology services become unavailable.