Singapore’s financial regulator has fired a warning at the city’s stock exchange for a delay in opening trading that lasted until 12:30 pm local time, an embarrassing lapse at a time when wealth management hubs in Asia are battling for business.

Singapore’s financial regulator has fired a warning at the city’s stock exchange for a delay in opening trading that lasted until 12:30 pm local time, an embarrassing lapse at a time when wealth management hubs in Asia are battling for business.

The outage is the second time that stock trading has been interrupted in a month, an event that will put its management under pressure, media reports said.

This publication sought to find statements from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, but ironically the MAS website appeared not to be working at the time it was called up.

The outage is seen as a blow to chief executive Magnus Böcker in his attempt to put the exchange on a more competitive footing against the likes of Hong Kong, which has recently commenced its “through-train” linkup with the Shanghai bourse.

“This incident has occurred on the back of the power breakdown on 5 November and we understand the market’s frustration. This should not have happened and we take full responsibility. We are reviewing our processes to prevent any recurrence. Our priority is in rebuilding the trust that our members and customers have in us, and we seek their understanding and patience,” Böcker said in a statement on the exchange website.

Responding to questions about the latest incident, the exchange CEO was quoted by Reuters as saying: "I'm not giving up because of this." The decision as to whether he will renew his contract is between him and the board, he reportedly said.

The MAS said in a statement that Böcker and the exchange must review processes and address any shortcomings leading to the delay.