The UK Accelerated Settlement Taskforce (AST), the EU T+1 Industry Committee (IC) and the Swiss Securities Post Trade Council T+1 Task Force (swissSPTC) publish a unified Testing & Readiness Plan to guide the European financial industry through its transition to T+1 settlement, targeted for 11 October 2027.

The three chairs of the pan-European T+1 initiative jointly released a coordinated Testing & Readiness Plan – the first of its kind to span the EU, UK and Swiss financial markets simultaneously. The plan provides a practical framework for all market participants and financial market infrastructures (FMIs) to test their readiness for the move to T+1 settlement and to de-risk the transition before go-live.

The publication follows the establishment of a joint Testing & Readiness Workstream by the AST and EU T+1 IC in December 2025. Given the deep interconnection between EU, UK and Swiss markets – and the significant cross-border participation across all three – the three taskforces determined that a single, aligned programme would deliver substantially greater benefit than separate national plans.

WHY THIS MATTERS

Under T+1, firms will have approximately 20% of the processing time currently available under T+2 to complete the same range and volume of tasks. The transition demands significant operational change across the entire settlement chain — from trade execution through to final settlement. The Testing & Readiness Plan is designed to help every participant — large and small, buy-side and sell-side, EU, UK and Swiss — understand what is required of them and how to test it.

Three key messages underpin the plan:

• Automation is a key success factor

• Your readiness depends on the readiness of the entire settlement chain of which you are a part

• Start testing now — many providers have test environments available today

Giovanni Sabatini, Chair — EU T+1 Industry Committee:

“Moving to T+1 is not merely a technical upgrade – it is a pillar of the Savings and Investment Union and a unique opportunity to remove friction from European capital markets. The fact that EU, UK and Swiss authorities are delivering this together is a demonstration of what practical, functional cooperation can achieve. We are building a bridge, and this Testing Plan is a critical part of it.”

Andrew Douglas, Chair — UK T+1 Accelerated Settlement Taskforce:

“As requested by industry participants, we have collaborated with the EU on the launch and implementation of this testing framework. It will help firms to design and execute their own test plan for individual solution components as well as full end-to-end testing. It also clearly shows that testing of the individual components can start now, allowing plenty of time to guarantee a smooth transition to T+1 by October 2027.”

Florentin Soliva, Chair — Swiss Securities Post Trade Council T+1 Task Force:

“Switzerland’s inclusion in this joint programme reflects our markets’ deep integration with the wider European post-trade ecosystem. A coordinated approach is the only approach that makes sense.”

WHAT THE PLAN COVERS

The Testing & Readiness Plan sets out:

• Guiding principles for industry-wide testing, including the importance of starting now using existing BAU test environments

• A testing timeline and logistics framework, including recommended windows for testing providers to open environments

• A de-risking framework drawing on lessons learned from the US T+1 transition, including key metrics firms should assess against

• Trade flow scenarios covering on-exchange and OTC trades, securities lending, repo, FX, and corporate events

• Guidance for Financial Market Infrastructures (FMIs) on communicating test environment access

NEXT STEPS

The three taskforces will jointly present the plan at public events on 25 March in London and 21 April in Frankfurt. Further industry engagement will continue through roadshows in Athens (24 April) and Prague (26 May), alongside a series of targeted webinars for non-EU markets.

A second readiness survey across EU market participants is expected in June.

Source: AST