Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) president Taizo Nishimuro is pictured here in Tokyo, in June 2007. The TSE said Friday it was improving its system and that its top executives would slash their own pay after a computer glitch disrupted trading earlier this month, with Nishimuro giving up 10 percent of his own salary for a month as punishment.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange said Friday it was improving its system and that its top executives would slash their own pay after a computer glitch disrupted trading earlier this month.

The malfunction was the latest embarrassment for Asia's largest bourse, which has been devoting resources to improve technology.

The bourse shut down futures trading on Topix, the broader index, on February 8 and did not resume until the next trading day, February 12.

The bourse said that four executives, including board chairman Taizo Nishimuro, would give up 10 percent of their salaries for a month as punishment.

"Tokyo Stock Exchange, Inc. (TSE) would like to offer its sincere apologies to investors and the many others involved in its markets for the inconvenience," a statement said.

It said it planned a series of upgrades to improve the system by the end of April.

The glitch meant that data on orders were mismatched in two tables used for derivative trading on Topix. The index, an acronym for the Tokyo Stock Price Index, includes all first-section shares.

It said the direct fault for the glitch lay with high-tech giant Fujitsu Ltd., which developed the system.

But it added: "The TSE's responsibility as a market operator and administrator is also significant in terms of failure to construct an organisational structure that gives top priority to ensuring the functioning of the market."

The Tokyo Stock Exchange in November 2005 suspended trading in all shares for the first time ever in an embarrassing software glitch that brought stock dealing to a standstill for nearly a day.

In another case in 2005, a securities firm was landed with a loss of more than 200 million dollars after a simple typing error.

© 2008 AFP