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Which companies just had a verified incident, who lends to them and who owns them. Every claim carries its evidence level and its source. How we decide what is confirmed

Global Financial Service Disruptions

London Metal Exchange (LMEselect)

securities exchange · GB · UK · The London Metal Exchange

Technical failureStatus: resolvedTier 1Severity 4 of 5Evidence confidence: highAnalyst-verified

LME's primary electronic matching engine failed at about 14:43 London time on 16 Mar 2026, halting electronic trading in all metals during the closing-price window. Trading was restored on a secondary instance after two to three hours.

First disruption
Mar 16 14:43 UTC
First public signal
Mar 16 (LME notice: electronic market in technical halt)
Acknowledged
Mar 16
Restored
Mar 16
Duration
not established
DFX first recorded
Nov 5 14:58 UTC

What was restricted

tradingScope: sector wide

All electronic metals contracts halted; closing prices produced via fallback pricing waterfall (pricing disruption event); inter-office market stayed open.

Cause, kept in separate layers

What the institution said
Primary electronic matching engine failure; restore on secondary instance
DFX classification
Technical failure (cyber: unconfirmed)
Conflicting reports
Duration two hours (Bloomberg) vs three hours (Recycling Today).

Evidence