If you’re looking for contrition from BATS Global Markets following its revelation that it’s been screwing up hundreds of thousands of trades and violating rules for about four years, you’ll be disappointed. The latest exchange forced to publicly admit incompetence says it’s going to try to fix things, but that customers (and, presumably, the SEC) are just going to have to get used to the occasional snafu.

“This is part of the business of being an exchange in an electronic environment,” chief executive Joe Ratterman said in an interview at the company’s Lenexa, Kan., headquarters. “You have to accept that you are going to find issues if you are diligent in looking for them.”

“Handling orders right is a challenging problem to solve,” Mr. Ratterman said.

All of this did not go over well at all with the guy manning The News Hub over at wsj.com, who points out that “handling orders right” is exactly the business that BATS is in. But he then goes off the rails a bit and suggests that we just junk all of this electronic trading nonsense and return to the world of open outcry.

Unfortunately for BATS, the SEC, while thrilled with the exchange’s ratting on itself, is perhaps less thrilled with its somewhat shoulder-shruggy response to the whole thing, and is mulling some sort of action against it. And the agency isn’t likely to be swayed by this argument:

Officials at BATS and other exchanges have said that the price-sliding orders were developed to comply with regulations. BATS Chief Executive Joe Ratterman said in an interview Thursday morning that its technology problems are “indicative of complexity in the markets,” and that regulators should examine how the complexity leads to errors.

Bats CEO says trade problems are part of the business [WSJ via Financial News]
Now Up to BATS: Damage Control [WSJ]
Video – BATS CEO: Trade Problems ‘Part of the Business’ [WSJ]
SEC Concerned About Other Exchanges [WSJ]
Bats Blaming Market Rules as Calls of Overhaul Grow [Bloomberg]