The International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) completed its transition to electronic-only trading last week, but system issues on its first day disrupted business for more than an hour.

The exchange is using ICE, an electronic trading platform developed by US parent IntercontinentalExchange.

Although the problem was blamed on human error, it is the latest in a number of disruptions during the transition, and will have done little to reassure traders (Computing, 23 March).

'We temporarily halted trading due to an operational error relating to the input of a reference price,' said IPE chief executive Richard Ward. 'The halt was not caused by technical issues in respect of the electronic trading platform.'

On the day of the IPE?s all-electronic debut, US rival the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) filed an application with the Financial Services Authority to become a UK-recognised investment exchange, with a trading centre in London based on face-to-face trading.

While it waits for regulatory approval, Nymex is wooing unhappy IPE traders, about 100 of whom lost their jobs because of the IPE's transition to electronic trading. Many are expected to move to Dublin or New York exchanges.