On the anniversary of his appointment as head of the Singapore Exchange this month, Loh Boon Chyemight have highlighted the fact that the group’s own shares were outperforming the benchmark, or the potential in its merger talks with London’s Baltic Exchange. But a technical malfunction halted trading and produced the worst outage in the bourse’s history.

The glitch was more embarrassing than commercially damaging. SGX not longer derives the largest part of its revenues from cash equity trading —although, as with the Hong Kong Exchange, its primary function is still what it is best known for.

What both groups are focusing on, however, is a battle to become Asia’s go-to centre for cross-border dealing in as many asset classes and market segments as they can.