Bloomberg Terminal Outage Disrupts Bond Auctions Across Europe

A widespread outage on Bloomberg’s financial terminal network — the go-to trading and data platform for global finance professionals — caused temporary but significant disruptions across European bond markets on Wednesday.

The incident affected multiple core functions of the Bloomberg terminal, slowing down or halting price feeds, analytics, and communication tools. The outage started early in the morning and forced several governments and financial institutions to delay or extend sovereign bond auctions, a rare event in the tightly timed world of public debt markets.

What Happened?

The company confirmed a “technical issue” disrupted services for many clients.

“Our systems are returning to normal operations and Terminal functionality has been restored following a service disruption earlier today,” said Bloomberg spokesperson Ty Trippet.

The issue began around 0800 GMT, with some users experiencing repeated timeouts, frozen screens, and failing data streams. Functionality started gradually returning around 1000 GMT, though many users reported slower-than-usual performance.

Which Markets Were Affected?

Governments across Europe were forced to delay auctions for government bonds due to the terminal failure:

The European Union postponed its EUB bond auction by one hour, saying it wanted to ensure “smooth functioning.”
The UK Debt Management Office extended its bidding window, closing the auction at 10:30 GMT, instead of the scheduled time.
Sweden extended its window by three hours.
Portugal gave traders an extra four hours to submit bids.

“It’s a mess. It’s blocking business,” said Gregoire Kounowski, an investment adviser at London-based Norman K.

Why It Matters

The Bloomberg terminal, launched in 1981 by billionaire Michael Bloomberg, is a critical tool for around 350,000 users worldwide, including asset managers, traders, banks, and government institutions. A single subscription can cost tens of thousands of dollars per year.

The terminals are vital for:

Real-time market data
Pricing across asset classes (stocks, bonds, currencies, commodities)
Secure messaging and trading
Financial analytics and research

While outages are rare, even a brief disruption can ripple across markets, especially during sensitive operations like bond auctions.

“Price feeds were very intermittent,” said Giles Plump, a London-based copper trader at StoneX.
“Some functions weren’t loading, but it wasn’t a major problem for me personally.”

Others were less forgiving. A trader in Dubai told AFP the terminal was “down” and only “flickers back to life for five seconds” at a time.

Has This Happened Before?

Yes. In April 2015, a similar global outage lasted about two hours, affecting trading and monitoring activity across major financial centres. That disruption also forced the UK to delay a bond auction, highlighting how deeply embedded the Bloomberg terminal is in global markets.

While Bloomberg moved quickly to restore service and most markets adapted without major breakdowns, the episode highlighted the fragile dependency modern finance has on a handful of digital platforms. When one of those pillars falters — even briefly — the ripple effects are felt from London to Lisbon.

For traders and governments alike, redundancy planning just became a little more urgent.

Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.

Weak 20-Year Treasury Auction Sends Yields Higher and Stocks Tumbling

Nvidia CEO Slams Biden’s AI Chip Export Curbs as a “Failure,” Backs Trump’s Reversal

White House: China Will ‘Absorb’ Tariffs — Not US Consumers

Bostic Warns on Moody’s Downgrade, Inflation Risk — Leans Toward One Cut

Nvidia Expands in China & Taiwan as US Export Rules Tighten

Earnings Calendar, Fed Speech, Housing Data: What to Watch This Week

UK overtakes China as second-largest US Treasury holder

CERN Scientists Turn Lead into Gold — Why This Is Bigger Deal for Bitcoin Than You Think

Nvidia, Cisco, Oracle and OpenAI are backing the UAE Stargate data center project

Trump vs. Tim Cook: Apple’s Global Strategy Sparks Debate Over Economic Patriotism and AI Security