NAB to keep revised system

However, an NAB spokesperson acknowledges that the bank has already made changes to the system to address the platform's shortcomings, and says further alterations are on the way.

NAB officials announced in mid-January that they had commissioned an independent report into the matter by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). The report revealed that the options trading platform used by NAB was dubbed Horizon and was developed by an "external software company. The software company was small but had developed a foreign exchange options system at another major Australian bank," according to the PwC report. A spokesperson at Triaxia, a Sydney-based vendor, confirmed Horizon was developed by the company, but declined to provide more information.

"Issues about valuation, being able to enter and remove orders from the system, and internal deals have been addressed with some changes in the [trading] system, and some [changes in] manual processes," said the NAB spokesperson. Specifically, he said the Horizon software has already been altered so internal orders are now matched on the system. The representative declined to give further examples of changes that have been made so far.

PwC also reported that NAB officials say the bank vigorously tested Horizon at the time of implementation.

However, NAB officials were unable to locate details of the testing performed for the implementation of Horizon, according to the report. "We are therefore unable to conclude on the completeness, accuracy or appropriateness of testing the new system," said the PwC authors.