For the first time in its history, the City was empty on Friday, March 20. As Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the closure of pubs and restaurants, the offices of London's financial center – as well as those of Canary Wharf, the capital's other business district – were deserted. The only people still present were those who are usually invisible: security guards, construction workers, street sweepers …
Lloyd’s, the insurance market, was plunged into darkness, a lonely caretaker sitting in the dark looking straight ahead. At the Royal Exchange, a complex of cafes and luxury stores facing the Bank of England, the overpriced watch seller was the last to resist, while the other shops were closed.
This raises a question: with trading rooms and their sophisticated computer systems shut down, how can financial markets continue to function? For now, the official message is that everything can continue as before. "My philosophy is that as long as you don't see what I would call out of control markets, keeping them open is important"said Andrew Bailey, the new Governor of the Bank of England, who took office on March 16. People who work in "Essential financial services", including for "Financial market infrastructure", are on the list of those authorized to go to work, alongside nurses, firefighters or food vendors.
Same story in the United States. "Everyone wants to keep (the steps) open, declared, on March 17, the American secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin. We may have to cut the trading hours at some point, but Americans should know that we are doing everything we can to get their money, whether it's in the banks (…) or on the stock market. "
Certainly, the floor of Wall Street or the auction of the London Metal Exchange are closed, but it is essentially folklore. Markets have been electronic for a long time. The issue is whether it is possible to run them entirely with traders who work from home. Xavier Rolet, former director of the London Stock Exchange, believes that this is, in theory, possible. "The only limits are the quality of Wi-Fi networks in large cities and the security of the means already existing in banks, fund management companies and stockbrokers to allow remote access of their employees to the networks of execution (buy and sell orders). " Two conditions which, of course, have never been tested on this scale.
