Microsoft outage forces global traders back to phones and fax machines

A major Microsoft outage has forced financial traders worldwide to revert to using phones and fax machines, disrupting global markets and essential services. The outage, which began November 12, has impacted Microsoft 365, Teams, Outlook, and Copilot, affecting institutions like the London Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. Some Japanese firms confirmed trades are being processed by fax, though brokers say the issue mainly disrupts trade processing rather than execution. The disruption has also hit the NHS 111 system, police online crime reporting, and GP appointment bookings. Microsoft admitted a fix is "not taking as expected," with over 130,000 outage reports in the US at its peak.