Accelerating the settlement cycle: An opportunity to modernise across the industry

The financial services industry has analysed the benefits and barriers of accelerating the US securities markets to trade date plus one day (T + 1). The focus of this paper is on the areas impacted and the need for driving industry modernisation efforts through technological advancement and operational scalability while at the same time seeking to mitigate risks and operational inefficiencies in the capital markets infrastructure. The purpose of the paper is to provide the reader with an understanding of the impacts across the different brokerage functions, businesses, behaviours that need to be considered, in order for individual firms and the industry as a whole, to transition to a T + 1 settlement. Firms will need to prepare for the anticipated transition scheduled for September 2024 (pending SEC rule adoption).