Accelerated Settlement Working Group

Purpose

T+1 is a trend which is being investigated across the globe and in some countries is either already implemented or planned to be. The transition to T+1 (or zero) is non-trivial as it requires years of planning, testing and coordination across the industry to ensure that global investment flows can be efficiently managed. Nevertheless, the political and regulatory will is high and changes can be encouraged or required to reduce the settlement cycle.

The stated benefits of T+1 are mainly about counterparty risk, margin requirements, funding costs and innovation. On the other hand, such move would imply significant challenges especially on post-trade processes as the settlement cycle would be reduced with increased pressure notably on matching, liquidity and cash management.

The Accelerated Working Group (WG) aims to provide in depth analysis on the impacts and possible mitigating actions that can be taken by investors and their securities servicers especially in the context of non-domestic investors. More particularly, the WG will assess assumptions, through the lens of cross-border impacts, on:

• Benefits of T+1 especially on risks, margins requirements and funding costs
• Challenges on post-trade processes
• Impacts on efficiency: settlement fails, cash penalties, securities financing transactions

Scope

The 2024 Agenda for WG includes:

• Testing in the US/Canada/Mexico/Argentina: How are potential impacts for international investors are being addressed?
• After May implementations case study: Measures of the true impact for international investors. What mitigants/solutions are there to the issues raised in the December 2023 paper?
• Settlement Cycle Mis-alignment: follow-up, operational issues, business issues (liquidity impact),
• Regulatory developments, especially in Europe and the UK, following recommendations on moving to T+1 by industry task forces.
• A deeper dive assessment of both atomic settlement and end of day T+0 settlement

Key Deliverables

• A follow-up paper documenting how the challenges for international investors have been addressed in the U.S. T+1 implementation and in the planning for Europe and the U.K.
• Educate the industry through webinars and conferences on the solutions to the challenges.
• Participate to relevant industry discussions especially in the context of both the EU Task Force and the UK Accelerated Task Force.
• Organise exchanges with public stakeholders if needed.

Key Outcomes

TBC

Publications

• T+1 Pulse Survey Key Findings Report > link
• High Level Roadmap for Adoption of T+1 in EU Securities Markets >link
• White Paper “T+1 Global Impact”, December 2023 >PDF

Working Group Co-Chairs

• Haroun Boucheta, BNP Paribas
• Kamala Kannan, S&P Global

Executive Sponsor

• Hannah Elson, J.P. Morgan

Institutions represented by Experts in the Working Group

• ABN AMRO
• BNP Paribas S.A.
• BNY
• Broadridge Financial Solutions Inc.
• Citi
• Cofinpro
• Cognizant
• Deutsche Bank AG
• Deutsche WertpapierService Bank AG
• Erste Group Bank AG
• Euroclear
• European Central Securities Depositories Association ECSDA
• Hong Kong Exchange and Clearing Limited
• Intesa Sanpaolo Group / Privredna Banka
• JP Morgan Chase & Co.
• KBC Group NV
• LLB
• Nasdaq Inc
• New Zealand Clearing and Depository Corporation Limited
• Northern Trust Corporation
• Royal Bank of Canada
• S&P Global
• Standard Chartered Bank
• SWIFT SCRL
• Swiss Re Ltd
• Tata Group
• The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation
• The Investment Association
• U.S. Bank N.A.