74.95 per cent of trade date transactions in March were affirmed by the Depository Trust Company’s (DTC) cutoff time of 9pm ET, up from 74.5 per cent in February. The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has noted a modest improvement in affirmation rates with only one month left until the T+1 settlement cycle in the US, according to DTCC’s recent progress statement.
Various segments, including prime brokers and investment managers, are making strides. Prime broker affirmation rates remain steady at 83 per cent. Auto affirmation rates for investment managers have risen to 91 per cent, marking a 2 per cent increase. This rise is attributed to the addition of 30 new investment managers to the CTM auto affirmation workflow, bringing the total to 399.
Efforts to bolster affirmation rates among Custodians and investment managers (self) are yielding results, with rates climbing to 55 per cent in March from 53 per cent the month before.
One month left
With just over a month remaining until the transition to T+1 in the US, on 28 May, the DTCC urges firms to accelerate their preparations and readiness. It emphasises that “leveraging automation to optimise settlement workflows and implementing straight through post-trade processing better positions firms to achieve T+1 settlement”.