A global Microsoft 365 outage has disrupted customer communications at several financial trading firms, including SBI FX Trade in Japan, Phillip Capital in Singapore and CMC Markets. In this November 13, 2026, roundup, the reported problems range from delayed trade-execution emails and customer enquiries to failed password-reset notifications. The brokers have identified Microsoft services as the source of the disruption, while their disclosures provide no evidence of a corresponding failure in core trading or order-execution systems.
SBI FX Trade warns of delayed execution and login emails
Japanese retail forex broker SBI FX Trade issued a customer notice on November 13 warning that Microsoft’s Outlook disruption could prevent traders from receiving important account notifications.
The broker said customers using Outlook and other Microsoft email services might experience delays or failures in receiving login notifications and trade-execution confirmation emails.
SBI FX Trade also reported difficulties receiving incoming customer enquiries, warning that responses to email support requests could be delayed. The company said it had not confirmed similar delivery problems affecting customers using other email providers.
The messages may arrive late, or they may not arrive at all for now.
The broker advised affected traders to access their trading applications directly and review their login history and execution records rather than relying on email notifcations.
Its announcement identifies an email-delivery problem, not a confirmed inability to log into the trading platform or execute currency transactions. SBI FX Trade has not disclosed how many customers were affected, whether historical notifications will be delivered after recovery or how long the delays could persist.
The distinction between execution records and email confirmations is particularly relevant for active traders. A transaction can be recorded in the trading system even when the subsequent notification fails to reach the customer’s inbox. SBI’s guidance directs customers toward the underlying account records rather than the unavailable communication channel.
Phillip Capital reports email and password-reset failures
Singapore-based Phillip Securities, part of Phillip Capital, published separate notices on November 13 concerning disruptions to its primary email service and the delivery of one-time passwords through its POEMS trading platform.
The firm attributed its primary email disruption to the wider Microsoft outage and directed clients toward their trading representatives, dealing teams and Customer Experience Unit. Customers requiring urgent assistance were also advised to visit Phillip Investor Centres.
There was a second problem, and this one reached the password-reset process.
In a separate announcement, POEMS reported that customers using Microsoft-hosted email services, including Outlook, were experiencing problems receiving one-time passwords required for online password resets.
The notice specifically excluded customers using other email providers, such as Gmail, which the company said should continue receiving their password-reset codes normally.
Unlike a delayed support response, failure to receive a password-reset code can prevent a customer from completing an account-recovery procedure. Phillip Capital did not establish that existing users were generally unable to log in or that its trading engines were affected.
The company has not published the number of failed password-reset attempts, affected accounts or delayed customer requests. Nor has it provided a firm timetable for restoring normal email communcations.
The notices cover two related but operationally different dependencies: Phillip Capital’s ability to exchange emails with customers and the ability of Microsoft email users to receive authentication messages from the trading platform.
CMC Markets reports degraded client contact services
London-listed CMC Markets acknowledged the Microsoft disruption at 21:02 UTC on November 12, warning that intermittent connectivity problems involving Microsoft 365 and Outlook could affect customer communications.
The broker classified its CMC CFD Global client contact methods as experiencing degraded performance. It directed customers requiring assistance to live chat while Microsoft worked on restoring its services.
The service indicators told a narrower story than a platform-wide outage.
CMC’s status dashboard continued to list web and mobile trading, login, payments, MetaTrader, institutional APIs and other trading infrastructure as operational. The Microsoft incident was classified under customer contact services rather than trading execution.
The disclosure followed a separate 97-minute trading-platform incident affecting CMC Invest Australia and Singapore on November 11. That earlier problem involved the regional share-trading services and was marked resolved at 13:36 UTC.
CMC had also documented a payment-history display fault on November 2, when transactions were not appearing correctly in the History section of its global CFD platform.
Another incident on November 3 involved a UK7 data-centre order-routing disruption, which CMC resolved after approximately 16 minutes.
Those previous events affected different functions, and no evidence connects them to the Microsoft 365 outage. The latest incident is specifically attributed to an external cloud-service disruption affecting communication channels.
CMC has not disclosed the number of failed customer emails, delayed support cases or any measurable financial effect from the November 12 disruption.
Microsoft failure puts broker communication plans to the test
The disruption began affecting Microsoft 365 services globally on November 12, including Outlook, Exchange Online, Microsoft Teams and other business applications. Microsoft reported difficulties with its underlying infrastructure and authentication systems as engineers attempted to restore service.
By November 13, the company had reported signs of improved server stability following infrastructure adjustments, although service recovery remained uneven across products and regions. Microsoft said it had not identified evidence of malicious activity causing the incident.
For financial intermediaries, the disruption has exposed different points of dependecy on external communication infrastructure. SBI FX Trade’s problem involved both trade-related email notifications and incoming enquiries. Phillip Capital experienced an additional authentication-related disruption, while CMC identified degradation in client communications without reporting a corresponding trading-platform failure.
Three brokers, three sets of customer problems, and no shared figure for how many people were affected.
The disruption also follows a November 11 publication by Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority on operational resilience and third-party dependencies. The regulator said firms within the scope of its operational resilience framework should demonstrate that their communication arrangements remain effective when normal channels are unavailable or degraded.
The FCA identified weaknesses in some firms’ testing of alternative communication channels and warned against relying on manual workarounds without evidence that those arrangements can handle substantial or prolonged disruption.
These supervisory observations were not findings against SBI FX Trade, Phillip Capital or CMC Markets. The UK requirements also do not automatically apply to the Japanese and Singaporean entities discussed here.
For CMC, the availability of live chat provided an alternative customer-contact route. Phillip Capital identified dealing teams, trading representatives and physical service centres. SBI FX Trade directed traders toward their own platform records, allowing them to verify activity without waiting to recieve an email.
The available disclosures establish delays and failures in customer communication, with Phillip Capital also identifying a specific password-reset problem. They do not establish failed trades, incorrect account balances or disrupted settlement attributable to the Microsoft incident.
Full recovery of the underlying Microsoft services and clearance of delayed messages will determine the final duration of the disruption. The three brokers have yet to publish comprehensive customer-impact figures or confirm whether all outstanding communications were subsequently delivered.
Johan Shamshad is Editor-in-Chief at Dave Finances, covering financial markets, digital assets, trading platforms, brokers, fintech, payments and regulation. Since 2023, he has also worked as an editor at Gulf News, the UAE English-language newspaper published by Al Nisr Publishing LLC. His work focuses on market-moving developments, company disclosures, regulatory changes and trading infrastructure, with an emphasis on primary-source verification and practical context for traders and investors.