Nasdaq CEO Robert Greifeld have said on Friday that financial markets in the country require a backup system that are capable of consolidating stock quotes from the stock exchanges.

The comments come after an issue with the existing system halted trade in Nasdaq-listed stocks for three hours, raising serious concerns over the credibility of electronic systems. Greifeld admitted that the financial markets need an efficient backup system to avoid situations that halt trading.

Nasdaq has the responsibility of consolidating and disseminating the National Best Bid and Offer for shares that are listed on Nasdaq. These bids are then transmitted to the US trading exchanges across the country. An error in the system halted trading because traditional retail investors were not able to access accurate stock quotes even as hedge funds and high-frequency traders were able to get the data through proprietary feeds.

Greifeld said that they did not want to create a situation in which small investors would be at a disadvantage against larger firms with more electronic resources so the trading had to be halted for few hours. Greifeld said that Nasdaq systems operate normally more than 99 per cent of the time but it needs a more efficient system to respond to errors in a better manner.