Market participants feel the U.K is in a strong position to meet the migration to a shorter settlement next year and the focus is on small buy-side firms that may still use manual processes, the readiness of vendors and regulatory oversight.

The UK Accelerated Settlement Taskforce, in partnership with DTCC, the U.S post-trade infrastructure and Euroclear, the central securities depository, hosted a UK T+1: One Year to Go summit in London on 13 October 2026.

Lucy Rigby, MP and economic secretary to the Treasury, said via video at the event that she was confident that the U.K is on track to meet the implementation date for  T+1. She said: “We are entering the final year in a position of strength. The next 12 months matter and we need to accelerate delivery.”

European markets will cut the time for settling trades from two days after a trade, T+2, on 11 October 2027. The migration to T+1 will apply across the 27 member states of the European Union, UK, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Iceland and Norway. This will bring the region in line with North America, which migrated to T+1 in 2024. In contrast to the process in the U.S., the European transition takes place across multiple jurisdictions, currencies and market infrastructures. For example, there are 31 central securities depositories in Europe.

Jamie Bell, head of capital markets: supervision, policy and competition at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the U.K. regulator, agreed that he is “very confident” on the U.K. meeting the T+1 implementation date as the majority of firms “are in the right place.” However, he also acknowledged that there is work to do in pockets of the market, such as smaller buy-side firms.

Bell said: “You can expect the FCA to be more intrusive as the year progresses and we will be coming to you armed with data. 2027 will be incredibly important for industry testing.”

Daniel Hickey, global head of custody product and network management at State Street, said on a panel at the event that all key clients are engaged in thinking about automating standard settlement instructions (SSIs) and trade matching. Hickey added that the conversations are now about second or third order effects such as the impact of T+1 on foreign exchange, securities lending and UCITS funds, which settle T+3.

“Our top 100 clients have invested in automating SSIs and trade matching, and are in a good place,” said Hickey. “This is the key to success.”

Matt Johnson, executive director for ITP (institutional trade processing) industry relations and international strategy at DTCC, highlighted on the panel that DTCC has more than 18 million SSIs in its database, with approximately 60% provided by the source. DTCC also has data showing that more than 98% of equities trades in the EU are being matched on the same day on average, and 93.5% in fixed income, which has increased from 2025.

Mimi Yan, senior technical specialist at the Financial Markets Standards Board (FMSB) and co-lead, operational issues working group at the UK Accelerated Settlement Task Force technical group, agreed that the industry will eventually move to a hybrid model which includes T0, where participants will move between different rails. She said: “We want to become healthier and fitter but we need other define outcomes. Do we need to train for a heptathlon or can we go jogging three times a week?”

EU

ESMA, the EU financial markets regulator, said in a statement on 16 October 2026 that the regulatory technical standards and guidelines on standardised procedures and messaging protocols have been published, so the regulatory framework is ready.

The first deadline for investment firms and their clients to comply with the new requirements on allocations and confirmations is from 7 December 2026. This includes the mandatory use of electronic, standardised communication channels and international messaging standards; and machine-readable communication methods, except in cases of temporary technical disruptions.

Verena Ross, chair of ESMA, described T+1 as one of the most impactful recent market structure initiatives that will fundamentally improve the efficiency and international competitiveness of the EU markets.

“The focus now shifts to market participants to comply with the regulatory requirements, ready their systems and processes, and test their preparedness for the change, considering the recommendations of the EU T+1 Industry Committee,” she added.

Elisabeth Plakinger, principal at consultancy Capco, said on LinkedIn that three dates define the immediate delivery agenda: 7 December 2026; 12–14 June 2027 for messaging and T2S changes, and 11 October 2027 for the transition.

“The June sequence leaves two weeks before the next coordinated industry test window,” she added. “Clearstream’s suspended partial-release functionality remains an open dependency.”

Operations

James Maxfield, chief client officer at Duco, the agentic operations platform for financial services, said in a statement that while automation has dominated much of the conversation around T+1 readiness, firms risk overlooking  what happens when things go wrong as zero exceptions is an admirable, but highly unrealistic, goal.

Maxfield highlighted the growing use of 24/7 AI agents, with some firms already deploying them to investigate and resolve exceptions in real time which reduces the risk of activity spikes and enables firms to manage exceptions at scale. He added: “The work that firms do now to build smarter post-trade operations will also put them in a much stronger position for any future move towards T0.”

Richard Baker, founder and chief executive of Tokenovate, which automates post-trade, collateral, and tokenised settlement lifecycles, said in a statement that according to the firm’s latest research, 88% of respondents identified fragmented data as a significant or critical challenge to post-trade efficiency.Baker urged firms to use the T+1 transition as an opportunity to join up automation across the trade lifecycle, standardise transaction and event data, and keep the legal and economic terms of a trade connected through to settlement.

Hickey said firms should also see the move to T+1 as an opportunity to move to “T flexible”, where firms can choose from a range of settlement options, including atomic settlement, as the industry does not want to lose the benefits of netting.

“T+1 will continue into Asia,” added Hickey. “Settlement will move to digital rails alongside traditional rails as markets move to 24×7.”