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Merrill Fixes Problems With Order System

Story Filed: Friday, March 10, 2000 10:39 AM EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Merrill Lynch and Co. Inc. (MER.N), the No. 1 U.S. brokerage, said on Friday it had fixed a technical glitch that paralyzed its electronic system used for processing stock and bond orders on Thursday.

Merrill, which has 14,000-plus brokers, on Thursday upgraded the software that powers its Trusted Global Advisor electronic order system. The upgrade, meant to increase the system's power, overloaded its server and paralyzed some of the 150,000 trades that flow through it each day.

``We added additional servers, and it was resolved by the end of business on Thursday,'' said Merrill spokeswoman Selena Morris on Friday. Merrill brokers during the glitch used alternative means of processing client orders, she added.

Merrill will reimburse clients who lost money due to the system's failure, Morris said. She could not yet say how much that would cost the firm.

Merrill's Trusted Global Advisor system generally processes about 10 percent of the orders the firm's brokers execute for the firm's 5 million clients.

Copyright ) 2000 Reuters Limited.

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-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), March 10, 2000