INTERVIEW | With under 500 days to go before the UK, EU and Switzerland shift to T+1, Ho Yun Kuan asked experts what firms will need to do differently in 2026. This updated extract from our 2026 post‑trade priorities article captures the latest developments in accelerated settlement.
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The date is set and the plans have been drawn out. On 11 October 2027, the EU, UK, and Switzerland will transition to a shorter settlement cycle. To quote Europe (the Swedish rock band), we are leaving together, but still it’s farewell – to T+2.
In his interview with PostTrade 360° published in June 2025 – ranked ninth most-read on the site for 2025 – Giovanni Sabatini, head of the EU’s T+1 Industry Committee cautioned that the industry should view the October 2027 deadline as if it were tomorrow morning. Speaking to us for this feature, he once again reiterated the importance of a sense of urgency. By now, firms that are keeping good time with T+1 preparation should no longer be in the assessment or planning phrases. The above-mentioned rock band would say we are leaving ground; in industry speak, it’s high time for implementation.
Emma Johnson, head of Industry Advocacy and Insight at market research firm The ValueExchange, observed that market participants in the EU might have been more cautious at the beginning of 2025. The UK’s Accelerated Settlement Taskforce (AST) published its T+1 Code of Conduct (UK-TCC) in February 2025. EU’s equivalent, the High-Level Roadmap by the EU T+1 Industry Committee, was published only on 30 June 2025, with the committee formally established only in January.
“There were folk who sat back and waited for the publication of those recommendations,” Johnson says, pointing out that those market participants “basically missed half of 2025”. This meant that they “had to really play catch-up in the second half of the year translating those recommendations into targeted actions internally in their institutions”.
Sabatini shares a checklist, “By now, all market participants should have done the following: assessed the impact of the transition to T+1; set up a robust project governance with reporting and monitoring; allocated sufficient financial and human resources; begun active discussions with IT providers about necessary system upgrades; and engaged clients about behavioural changes required by the move to T+1.”
Time is running out
Johnson cited two key concerns with current T+1 preparations: allocations and confirmations. The EU’s High-Level Roadmap has drawn out an operational timetable with implementation deadlines for various processes in the trade lifecycle. End of December 2026 has been set as the target date for allocations and confirmations to be completed by 23:00 CET on T+0. Yet, in the recent EU and UK T+1 Pulse survey by The ValueExchange, 46% and 43% of EU respondents predicted that they will miss this deadline for allocations and confirmations respectively. In the UK, the figures were 37% and 39% respectively.
“You must consider that allocations and confirmations are what trigger many downstream actions such as funding cash accounts, arranging FX, and getting settlement instructions sent to the CSD ahead of 23:59 CET. They are critical – so these are two of the key activities I want to see the industry focus on in 2026 to hit the December implementation deadline in both jurisdictions,” says Johnson.
But more than just a regulatory overhaul, T+1 is also often described as an automation challenge. Virginie O’Shea, founder of consultancy firm Firebrand Research observes, “There is a fair amount of concern in many firms about the amount of budget allocated to T+1 because of the scale and broad scope of the changes required, particularly in areas where manual processes and older technologies dominate.”
Johnson, O’Shea, and Sabatini all agreed that corporate actions is an area that deserves more priority in automation than it is currently receiving. “It doesn’t ever get any air time at all,” says Johnson. “I think it’s because when we talk about T+1, the focus is on settlement and the middle office processes.” Things are looking up, however. She once again cited numbers from the EU T+1 Pulse survey: 53% of firms have planned projects to automate corporate actions processing.
Bridge over troubled water
Market participants should be assured that they can always lean on their industry committees or taskforces for support. Sabatini says, “The EU T+1 Industry Committee will stand ready to assist and monitor the implementation phase, to provide further guidance, to communicate with non-EU investors to help them understand the complexities and changes in the EU post-trade environment, and to cooperate with EU public authorities to ensure a smooth transition to T+1.”
The committee has also released additional guidance to address three areas of the High-Level Roadmap that require further explanation. These additions focus on promoting standardisation in the pre-settlement process in trade-level matching; encouraging the use of partial settlement and partial release; and exploring technical solutions to mitigate intraday liquidity impacts from the expected shift of repo and securities financing transaction settlement to T+0.
Sabatini also recently addressed concerns about the deadline for sending settlement instructions. He confirmed ESMA intends to encourage earlier sending of instructions but that midnight is not a cut off for T+1 settlement. ESMA is now formalising this clarification, Sabatini said, with meeting minutes published on ESMA’s website.
Further, the EU T+1 Industry Committee has set up a Testing Task Force to determine how testing can be performed efficiently and effectively. Sabatini reveals, “The EU T+1 Industry Committee, the UK AST and the SwissSPTC (Swiss Securities Post-Trade Council) will work on a plan on what community testing should look like in practice, determining testing scenarios, methodologies, and timelines for the industry plan in conjunction with key industry participants, FMIs (financial market infrastructures), and third parties.”
What will be different in 2026?
Taken together, these perspectives point to a decisive year ahead for the EU’s T+1 journey. “With less than 250 working days to the testing phase, firms should accelerate internal automation and review their organisation and engage IT providers and counterparties as soon as possible. Asset managers should particularly focus on cash and inventory management,” Sabatini urges.
Johnson predicts that 2026 will be about teamwork – and simply, more work. “What I’m expecting to see is the industry coming together to draft market standards and market practice, which will help shape firms’ own implementation. I’m expecting the CSDR (Central Securities Depository Regulation) SDR (Settlement Discipline Regime) regulatory technical standards to get rubber-stamped, which will bring regulatory intensity to the EU implementation.”
Above all, the transition is about an industry coming together for something bigger than itself. “Communicate, communicate, communicate,” Johnson stresses. She is co-leading an upcoming risk and compliance workstream in the UK AST with the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) that will strive to answer an important question in T+1 preparation: what does good look like? “We should be very clear about what good looks like – for 11 October, not after,” she emphasises.
