For decades, post trade was the laggard in the trade life cycle. Clearing, settlement, custody and reconciliation systems trailed the advances of the front office, humming along in the background amid innovations on the trading desk. That era is ending as compressed settlement cycles, surging trade volumes, more expansive regulation, and the emergence of artificial intelligence catalyse a fundamental rethink.

On a recent episode of Traders Magazine’s Open Order Podcast, BNP Paribas’ Securities Services business executives Gary O’Brien and Sonal Meghani surveyed the post trade landscape of 2026 and addressed how institutional firms can best adapt and compete in a global industry that is faster, more collaborative, and leaning in to change.

Regulation, data and the new operating model

Meghani, a Financial Intermediaries Segment and Regional Strategist based in London, characterised the new era as “faster, more connected, and more demanding.” Settlement timetables are compressing and regulatory expectations are expanding, yet fundamentals such as asset safety, resilience, risk management, and trust remain non-negotiable.

O’Brien, the Sydney-based Head of Financial Intermediaries & Corporates APAC, said post trade is in “a period of complex collaborative competition,” where a firm may compete with a peer in one market and partner with it in another.

Regulation is a primary influence. For years, O’Brien noted, rules were seen as stifling innovation by absorbing budgets that might have funded innovation. Now, mandates for quicker settlement such as T+1 require more automation and transmission of important data points, while leaving less time to fix problems.

Meghani likened the moment to maintaining a home: “Over a certain time you have to re-evaluate the pipes and the plumbing.” That work, she added, means collaborating with regulators, infrastructures and clients. O’Brien’s strategic advice was blunt: “The days where you can be a unicorn that is providing all services to all people are really gone.”

Data was discussed on the podcast, as both a bottleneck and an opportunity. O’Brien cited “shareable technology” where clients access the information a provider creates directly, cutting reconciliation between two data stores and the overhead before an investor can act. Meghani put the stakes in settlement terms: under T+1 there is no slack to fix a data problem after the fact. “You could automate your solutions as much as you like,” she said, but bad data still means failed trades. The differentiator is not owning more data but having “reliable, governed and well-structured data that can also move across the ecosystem.”

AI and the quest for T+0

Meghani drew a line between generations of AI. The older kind helped firms work faster; the emerging agentic era helps them do things smarter, with specialized agents orchestrating workflows under human oversight. Adoption, she said, must be “responsible and explainable,” backed by strong governance, because trust is so critical in post trade.

O’Brien grounded this in scale. BNP Paribas’ Securities Services business runs at roughly 97 to 99 percent straight-through processing in routine flows, yet the remainder still amounts to thousands of transactions. AI can work out why a trade fell out of automation and propose, or even automate, the fix, turning exceptions into “happy path” trades that settle on time. He also flagged the downside: “It’s not just the nice people that get to use these technologies,” so cybersecurity and risk frameworks must keep pace.

That pressure feeds the push to shorter settlement. India moved to T+1 in 2023, the United States followed in 2024, and the UK, European Union and Switzerland are preparing to do the same, with Brazil after that, Meghani noted. T+0 remains mostly conceptual for now: it might suit specific instruments or platforms, but broad adoption would demand deeper alignment of trading hours, funding, FX and liquidity management. Any compression move should begin with a clear market objective, as Meghani said it should never be about just speed.

O’Brien offered the view from Asia, where China, and Hong Kong’s Stock Connect settle partly on T+0, as does Australia for some discount securities. China is a no-fails market, he said, but one that needs more manual intervention and thus doesn’t work at scale.

The belief is that a market can move to T+1 on a T+2 framework, but T+0 require radical and innovative change.” That is why digital asset frameworks, built for near-instant settlement from the outset, may find T+0 easier than legacy markets. Asia’s fragmentation complicates the timetable too; in Australia, re-platforming the CHESS clearing system comes first, pushing T+1 toward 2029 or 2030.

People still power post trade

Both guests agreed technology alone will not decide the winners. Meghani said post trade is a people business, and professionals need data literacy and commercial awareness on top of deep operational knowledge, within a collaborative, cross-functional culture. O’Brien said BNP Paribas’ Securities Services business offers a combination of people and technology, and colleagues who are agile and adaptable. Ultimately, advancements in the back office enable the front office to do more.

Meghani noted that post trade spans operations, product, technology, risk, and legal, and the breadth and variety of the work draws talent. O’Brien added that showcasing the vision of what an organization can become helps attract and retain top people.

In closing, O’Brien urged firms to set mid- and long-term visions, and build short-term priorities toward it. Meghani said the post trade mega trends present an opportunity firms to focus on what they uniquely bring to the marketplace.