Let there be light when disruption strikes

THE power outage that shut down Singapore's stock and derivatives markets for half of Wednesday illuminated the need to help everyone see a little more clearly. For critics of the Singapore Exchange (SGX), the disruption needs to be viewed in perspective - one major stock market shutdown in years is no reason to start crowing about a loss of reputation or the end of the market as we know it.

For SGX, it needs to acknowledge that its communications to retail investors during the stoppage should have been better. The exchange was updating the brokers but retail investors and even many professional traders did not know when and if the market was going to reopen until late in the day. For the regulators, it may be timely to require greater accountability and transparency from market operators. For a start, it would be of great publi…