News Excerpt:

India's stock exchanges, including the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE), have jointly developed the Investor Risk Reduction Access (IRRA) platform.

IRRA platform:

• The IRRA platform has been developed to reduce risks investors face in the eventuality of technical glitches at the trading members' end at both the primary and disaster recovery sites.
• Its purpose is to allow investors to square off/close their open positions and cancel pending orders using the IRRA platform in case of technical glitches or unforeseen outages that render the trading member’s site inaccessible.
• The IRRA platform has been designed to reduce risks for investors participating in the market.
• It is not meant to take fresh positions or orders but to cancel the pending orders.

Need for IRRA:

• Growing reliance on technology in the securities market has led to increased glitches, causing disruptions in trading services and raising investor complaints.
• Investors with open positions face the risk of being unable to close their positions during such disruptions, especially in volatile markets.
• Existing business continuity plans of trading members may not always prevent disruptions, such as delays in moving to Disaster Recovery sites or cyber-attacks.