KUALA LUMPUR (March 12): Several stock brokerages suffered trading platform disruptions lasting days in the latest broad incident affecting the Malaysian stock market.

The brokerages affected included UOB Kay Hian, Phillip Capital, and Hong Leong Investment Bank, which have all informed their clients about the disruption, according to multiple people familiar with the situation. Some, however, have since restored their services.

“The issue is actually at the trading platform vendor,” one of the people told The Edge. “We are not the only ones in town affected but it’s certainly creating issues for our reputation.”

The disruptions come less than a year after a hacking incident involving multiple stock trading accounts across several brokers. The April 2025 episode prompted a series of initiatives to boost cybersecurity in the stockbroking industry.

Improvements outlined in a recommendation paper developed as part of the industry’s collective response to the unauthorised trades incident include responsibility for brokers to “exercise effective oversight over their third-party technology service providers”.

Hong Leong Investment Bank told clients that its HLeBroking platform will be unavailable for “necessary maintenance services” in a memo dated March 11 and advised clients to contact their remisiers and dealers to manually place trading orders.

Phillip Capital also sent a notice on March 11 that its Phillip Trade and POEMS website and mobile applications were not working due to “unforeseen circumstances”.

UOB Kay Hian, meanwhile, suspended trading over two days last week as a “preventive security measure” to safeguard client accounts, cash balances, and shareholdings but has since restored service after mandating password change for all clients.

already 3 days, the system still down. Any compensation for the cliens?