Europe’s move to T+1 settlement remains on schedule, with industry bodies in the EU, UK and Switzerland confirming this week that their testing plans are unaffected by a change to SWIFT’s release timetable.
In a joint statement issued on 22 September, the EU T+1 Industry Committee, the UK Accelerated Settlement Taskforce (AST) and the Swiss Securities Post-Trade Council said all testing windows, milestones and timelines stand as published. The confirmation follows SWIFT’s decision, made in coordination with the European Central Bank, to align the release of its securities messaging standards with the TARGET2-Securities release window, moving it to 12 June 2027.
Market participants can already test against current messaging standards ahead of SWIFT’s 2027 release and the 11 October 2027 transition date.
“This is a technical scheduling adjustment on SWIFT’s side, not a change to our transition timeline,” said Giovanni Sabatini, Independent Chair of the EU T+1 Industry Committee.
Coordination now the main challenge
Sabatini took the EU’s progress to an international audience on Thursday (24 September), sharing cross-jurisdictional perspectives on the transition with International Organisation Organization of Securities Commissions’ (IOSCO) Working Party 2 on Market Regulation.
The latest readiness survey shows 83% of firms actively engaged, with implementation moving from planning into execution. The findings also point to where attention must now turn. According to Sabatini, the main challenge is no longer individual firm readiness but coordination across counterparties, intermediaries and technology providers.
IOSCO members from the Asia-Pacific region are following the EU’s experience closely as they weigh their own transitions. Sabatini said cooperation with the UK and Swiss taskforces, and now more broadly, has been central to the Committee’s approach from the start.
