Same-day settlement: to infinity and beyond

While the world’s biggest markets are still preparing for T+1 settlement, talk is growing of the next step – but going any faster would mean a total reworking of how markets function.

The elephant in the room is whether the move to a shorter settlement cycle by the world’s most important market will stop at T+1, or whether it is inevitable that pressure will build to go shorter still.

Shorter means T+0, for same-day settlement. But it could even mean real-time settlement, what parts of the industry refer to as ‘atomic’ settlement to distinguish it from ‘instant’, which more precisely refers to the simultaneous transfer of securities and cash at the time of settlement itself and is a well-established practice.

India is already planning to introduce optional T+0 settlement from March as a step towards atomic settlement from March 2025.

Global regulators will be studying India’s experience to see if the benefits of even quicker settlement outweigh the risks.

China, which shares some characteristics of India too, is already on a...

Access this research

Enter your work email address to sign in or check whether your organisation already has access to Euromoney.