Microsoft Outlook outage disrupts workers in Hong Kong’s financial sector

The temporary outage of Microsoft’s office software Outlook disrupted employees’ work in Hong Kong’s financial sector on Friday morning.

After workers found the software was down, some staff had to work offline, according to sources from multiple banks.

Bankers from Goldman Sachs and Nomura said their work had been disrupted, the South China Morning Post learned.

“We haven’t been able to send or receive emails since the early hours of this morning, and the problem is still ongoing,” a Nomura employee told the SCMP at 11.10am. “We’re in the office with little to do.”

An employee at Goldman Sachs said the bank’s Hong Kong office had to use an alternative mailbox system to access emails and continue business operations.

“Some people were in [a] panic,” said an employee at another major US investment bank, who declined to be named. Microsoft services had been unavailable since the early hours of Friday.

Microsoft did not immediately respond to an emailed inquiry from the SCMP.