The FIX Trading Community has introduced a standard methodology, the Outage Communication Recommended Practices, to automate the electronic communication of market outages. Previously, outage notifications were inconsistent and largely manual, which often worsened the impact of technical disruptions. This new framework allows exchanges and market participants to issue timely, consistent updates and resolutions.
The initiative responds directly to regulatory guidance from the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), alongside industry bodies such as AFME, EFAMA, and FIA EPTA, who have all called for harmonised outage protocols. The practices build upon existing frameworks for European consolidated tapes while offering greater granularity.
Designed to be asset-class agnostic, the framework covers trading, market data, and other technical disruptions across all scopes, from individual instruments to entire markets. It applies broadly to venues, brokers, asset managers, and data providers, ensuring a unified approach to managing system failures.
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