T+1 in 2024 — 3 words of advice and 1 download

Asked to choose a highlight from last year and to write about forthcoming events in 2024, I realised I could crystallize both with a review of one particular panel discussion…

 It was one of the most pertinent sessions, for me – and to Taskize and its clients – that took place at Sibos last summer, chaired by Julia Streets from Streets Consulting.  The CEO Panel on “T+1: the impact of one – and only one – day to settle securities.”

The session asked and focused on the following three questions – and was a useful sense-check for Taskize’s latest eBook (the Post-Trade Operations Handbook Volume 4 – T+1) which was published for download at the end of the event:

• As the move to T+1 in major markets draws closer, what are the most attractive opportunities to be seized?
• How important is this to the leaders of some of the major securities infrastructures?
• What are the greatest concerns about the move and how will it impact operational teams around the world?

…They were put to a panel of senior executives from market participants:

• President, CEO and Director of DTCC, Frank La Salla
• Lieve Mostrey, Chief Executive Officer of Taskize’s parent company Euroclear
• Kevin Sampson, President of the Canadian Depository for Securities

Advice No. 1 – All workflows are touched by T+1, and awareness is lacking

Middle office, font office, settlement, corporate actions, fails management, funding, collateral management…. These were all areas that Kevin Sampson identified as being impacted by T+1.  Lieve Mostrey concurred, observing “It would be wrong to see it as something that will simply be mandated to CSDs… It will be much more impactful.”

“We have to take a more holistic look to the challenge,” she commented, “and of this holistic view – from the European perspective – awareness is still a bit low and we really have to work on that.” 

Advice No. 2 – “It all comes down to communication”

For an industry that still, in certain sectors, relies on phone, fax, and email, Kevin Sampson made an acute observation: “The communication with your clients, especially as a broker, as a custodian, is extremely important.  The buy-side is a segment of the market that is very critical in this whole value chain, and I think more attention is needed there.”

This was in response to a great question from Julia Streets – perhaps the most valuable for those of us sitting in the audience – when she asked the panellists simply, “What are we at risk of overlooking?”

As a side note, Lieve Mostrey answered this question by pointing to a topic we cover in one of the first pages of our eBook: time zone differences.  “Time zone differences are fixed, those are there,” she explained.  “Tokyo will remain 13 hours ahead of New York, and our finance business is global.”  The T+1 Handbook explains how the Taskize platform acknowledges this:

Within the secure confines of a Taskize Bubble, information and documentation can be shared securely between counterparties. Tasks can be agreed and automatically allocated to those with capacity to deal with it, with a Flag passed around to indicate a clear workflow and who holds responsibility for the next action, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks. Tasks can be passed across time zones, with the full history of the issue available to those picking up the issue as their market opens.

Advice No. 3 – Automation is one of the biggest challenges, and one of the biggest opportunities

As anyone who reads Taskize’s Insights blog will know, automation is very closed to our hearts and at the core of our software.  The Taskize platform can automate and replace both email and manual comms with workflow processes and exception handling.  Why is this important? 

Securities settlement involves a series interconnected processes that are disparate, lacking cohesion and, as the DTCC’s Ana Lotharius (Director, ITP Product Management & Americas Industry Relations) once observed “are prone to risk, high cost, and operational stress, and the industry cannot achieve T+1 if firms are still doing any of these steps manually.”

As such it was fascinating during the same panel to hear Kevin Sampson pick up on this area and confirm that “One of the biggest challenges of T+1 is the need for automation and redesign of workflows.  I think it’s incumbent on every player in the ecosystem to be able to take that approach and build more resilience and harden their automation.”

Sage words as we head into 2024, and towards the 28 May deadline for T+1 securities transactions.