The National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) will reduce its system response time to nanoseconds from April 11, a move that will allow the bourse to handle close to 100 million transactions per second, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Ashishkumar Chauhan said on Saturday.
NSE’s current response time is around 100 microseconds, enabling processing of roughly 50–60 lakh transactions per second. One second equals a million microseconds, while one nanosecond is a billionth of a second.
“We are going to give you response time in nanoseconds. Your speed is going to increase manifold — almost 1,000 times from what you are experiencing currently from NSE,” Chauhan said, adding, “We are real-time finance.”
He was speaking at an event organised by the Association of NSE Members of India (ANMI).
How will NSE’s nanosecond upgrade boost trading capacity?
As trading activity intensifies across segments, the enhanced processing capability is expected to help the exchange manage significantly higher transaction volumes with lower latency.
However, Chauhan also cautioned that higher speeds increase cyber risks and urged brokers and vendors to strengthen their cyber security frameworks.
“Ours is an unbelievable scale; not many people can understand. And that also brings me to the issue of cyber security. All this can come to a grinding halt if we are not able to handle cyber security. All vendors must ensure that cyber security is of paramount importance,” he said.
What is NSE doing to expand infrastructure and new products?
To support rising demand, NSE is expanding its colocation infrastructure. It currently operates over 2,000 colo racks, with the capacity to scale up to around 4,500 racks.
Colocation services allow trading members to place their servers within the exchange’s data centre, enabling faster access to market data and order execution by reducing network latency. These services are widely used by high-frequency and institutional traders.
Chauhan also said the use of artificial intelligence could help vendors deliver more efficient solutions at lower costs.
Separately, NSE is expanding into newer asset classes with products such as electricity futures and gold futures. Chauhan said contracts for difference (CFDs) are also under development, while 10 gm gold futures will soon be available for trading on the exchange. The 10 gm gold futures have recently received approval from market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).
