The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, one of the US market’s most important pieces of infrastructure, invoked its business continuity plan late last week in anticipation of Hurricane Sandy which hit the east coast of North America on Monday night.

The super-storm, which has been dubbed Frankenstorm and is predicted to be the largest in US history, caused the US public markets, including the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, to shut Monday and Tuesday in what New York-based industry veterans have described as an "unprecedented" moment for financial markets. Catastrophe risk modelling firm Eqecat estimates economic damages of $10bn to $20bn from the storm.