NYSE error, alleged Goldman breach said unrelated
NEW YORK, July 6 (Reuters) - The New York Stock Exchange said on Monday there was no connection between an alleged security breach at Goldman Sachs (GS.N) and an error that dropped the big investment bank from a trading report the exchange issued last week.
A former Goldman computer programmer, Sergey Aleynikov, was arrested July 3 and held through Monday in U.S. federal court accused of stealing secret trading codes from the New York-based bank, which is a top NYSE trader and market maker. [ID:nN06255904] [ID:nN05180222]
The Big Board, run by NYSE Euronext (NYX.PA)(NYX.N), issued a report last week that inexplicably did not list Goldman among its most active program trading firms in the week ended June 26. Goldman often tops the weekly list, which measures computer-driven orders for large baskets of stocks.
On Monday, an NYSE spokesman told Reuters the exchange was to blame for Goldman missing from the list, adding the bank reported its data to the exchange correctly and on time.
"It appears Goldman Sachs reported data correctly, and that due to a system problem on our part, the firm's individual program trading was not included in our weekly report," said Ray Pellecchia.
A Goldman spokesman told Reuters columnist Matthew Goldstein the bank reported the data, and was "among the top firms in terms of program trading volume for the week ending June 26."
NYSE's Pellecchia said it was a technical, not human, error that fumbled the Goldman data. "There was no discussion" with Goldman on the data, Pellechia said, adding the NYSE will re-run the report with the Goldman data later this week.
The spokesman said the Aleynikov case was in no way related to NYSE's program trading list error, nor was it related to the connectivity "glitch" that impacted orders and spurred the exchange to extend trading by an extra 15 minutes on Friday. [ID:nN06248838]
The NYSE had no comment on whether it is in discussions with Goldman about the alleged security breach.
Meanwhile, Pellechia said the NYSE plans later this month to change the information on which it bases the program trading reports. It will provide more details on the change July 23. (Reporting by Jonathan Spicer)
