India’s stock exchanges introduce safety net for investors during outages

MUMBAI – In a significant move to protect investors from the fallout of broker-level technical glitches, India’s major stock exchanges—BSE, NSE, NCDEX, MCX, MSE—have rolled out the Investor Risk Reduction Access (IRRA) platform. This system, established under the guidance of SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch, is designed to act as a ‘safety net’ allowing investors to manage their open positions and cancel pending orders in the event of a failure at both primary and disaster recovery sites.

The IRRA initiative was introduced in December last year after concerns were raised over frequent technical issues during periods of market volatility. It enables exchanges to proactively activate the IRRA system in response to connectivity problems or unusual order patterns without waiting for brokers to request intervention.

Key features of the IRRA include:

• Immediate notification to investors via SMS or email when the system is activated, including OTP authorization.
• Investors can access their trades using their Unique Client Code (UCC) or Permanent Account Number (PAN) through a specific web URL or mobile application that differs from regular trading platforms.
• The facility excludes support for algorithmic trading and institutional clients and does not permit squaring off for securities on a Trade-for-Trade basis.

Trading members are required to make all efforts to restore their primary systems before they can migrate to IRRA. This must be done no later than 2.5 hours before the market closes. Furthermore, reverse migration back to original trading systems is permitted once per day after the issue has been resolved and confirmed by all exchanges. Requests for such reverse migration need to be made one hour before market closure to allow for processing and a return to normal operations.

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