Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Reuters
Reuters
Business

JPMorgan, Goldman to halt software updates around U.S. election to minimize outages

FILE PHOTO: A view of the exterior of the JP Morgan Chase & Co. corporate headquarters in New York City May 20, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Segar/Files

JPMorgan Chase & Co and Goldman Sachs Group Inc will halt software updates to its retail and investment banking systems that customers use to manage accounts, around the Nov. 3 U.S. presidential election, the banks said on Thursday.

The Information had reported earlier on Thursday about the banks' move.

"We plan and implement code freezes periodically throughout the year to coincide with times of increased market activity," Patrick Lenihan, a Goldman Sachs spokesperson said, adding that a code freeze is instituted around every election.

FILE PHOTO: A sign is displayed in the reception of Goldman Sachs in Sydney, Australia, May 18, 2016. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo

Meanwhile, a JPMorgan spokesperson confirmed the report by The Information, but did not elaborate further.

The digital media firm's report also said the move was a preventive measure intended to minimize the risk of outages of their services during a period of potential market volatility surrounding the election.

JPMorgan's technology leadership team had recently told its technology staff that it will halt all software code changes for critical banking systems between Nov. 1 and Nov. 8, the report said. Those systems include Chase.com retail banking as well as trading, treasury, asset management and other services.

(Reporting by Aishwarya Nair and Kartik Mehindru in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and Uttaresh.V)

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.