The transition to T+1 settlement represents one of the most significant changes for European financial markets in recent years. It is not merely about shortening the settlement cycle by one day, but about addressing a transformation that directly impacts processes, systems, and operating models across financial intermediaries.
The regulator’s objective is clear: reduce systemic risk, strengthen market resilience, and increase transparency in settlement flows. However, implementing T+1 in Europe presents structural complexities that distinguish it from other international experiences. The presence of multiple markets, CSDs, and differing operating models requires a high level of coordination across the entire operational chain.
In this context, daily dialogue with banks and service providers highlights how compressed timelines make phases that are often handled on a deferred basis — such as pre-matching, data quality, and exception management — increasingly critical. From TAS’s perspective, as a long-standing technology provider in the capital markets space, T+1 cannot be viewed as a mere compliance obligation, but rather as an evolution of the operating model.
Under T+1, settlement fails can no longer be treated as events to be analyzed retrospectively. They become risks that must be actively managed throughout the trading day, requiring up-to-date information and tighter integration between securities, cash, and reporting systems.
In this scenario, increasing process automation and the evolution toward more “intelligent” applications play a central role. The compression of processing timelines makes management models based on manual intervention or ex-post controls progressively unsustainable. Institutions need systems capable of supporting timely operational decisions, prioritizing exceptions, and continuously monitoring process status.
Ongoing dialogue with the market reveals a recurring theme: adapting individual applications is necessary, but not sufficient. Without an end-to-end process view, there is a risk of informational fragmentation, making operational governance more complex precisely when speed becomes a critical factor.
It is from these considerations that the need emerges to strengthen structured moments of discussion among market participants. This is the objective TAS pursues through its dedicated, periodic User Groups — designed as dialogue forums with directly involved intermediaries to jointly analyze topics that significantly impact technological and market developments.
Within a new Capital Markets User Group, the T+1 topic can be addressed alongside other key transformation drivers — from regulatory reporting developments to digital asset initiatives and the coexistence of DLT-based markets with traditional infrastructures — with the goal of sharing experiences, approaches, and common operational perspectives.
In a landscape that continues to evolve, marked by converging regulatory and technological transformations, dialogue among market participants represents one of the key elements for successfully navigating a transition that, more than ever, requires a shared vision.
Article by Roberto Bruschi, Business Development Manager of TAS.
Original Source: Bancaforte
