‘Glitch Blocked Goldman at Treasury Auction’

Via: Wall Street Journal:

A glitch in a computer system at the center of the $11.6 trillion market for U.S. government debt last week blocked Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s multibillion-dollar order at an auction of Treasury bills, leaving the bank empty-handed and altering prices in the U.S. debt market.
The Treasury Department on Sept. 9 sold $30 billion of bills that mature in three months. Goldman was left out when its order didn’t go through the computers at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which conducts debt auctions for the Treasury. When Treasury officials noticed the botched order, they manually allotted Goldman more T-bills that mature in six months than the bank had asked for in a simultaneous auction.
The Treasury Department has released few details about what happened, saying only that it suffered “a technical issue” in its web-based portal that “resulted in one bidder being unable to access the 3-month auction,” according to a statement on its Web site last week. The Treasury didn’t identify Goldman as the bidder.
The Treasury is investigating the glitch, said people familiar with the situation. A spokeswoman at the New York Fed referred questions to the Treasury Department.
The mishap is the latest in a string of technical hiccups in U.S. financial markets that have raised anxieties among investors about losing money because of balky computers. The glitches are coming as banks and regulators push for trading to become more automated and electronic.
The orderly processing of debt auctions is critical to funding U.S. government programs and obligations. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York gathers and processes orders for Treasury auctions several times a month.