A group representing buy and sell-side firms and market infrastructure providers across Europe has called on the UK, Switzerland and the EU to coordinate plans to shorten the settlement cycle for securities trades.
The calls comes on the back of the UK's recent announcement that it will move to next day settlement (T+1) by 2027.
In its statement, the taskforce welcomed the UK’s plan that stated if the EU commits to T+1 in a timeline that aligned with its own, then simultaneous adoption could be considered.
The move to T+1 has been precipitated by the US which is set to start T+1 settlement in May 2024.
Consequently the EU, UK and Switzerland are looking at aligning to the same cycle or else risk costly lags in securities trades.
The taskforce is therefore looking to ensure some collaboration between the respective regulators in order to reduce any possible disruption.
“We anticipate that alignment of dates will reduce the complexity of implementation projects for firms active across multiple jurisdictions, and minimise scoping issues related to instruments listed, traded and settled across geographical Europe,” the European task force said in a statement.
“Our shared ambition is for a low-cost, efficient, safe, resilient and integrated post-trade environment which supports globally competitive European securities markets, with high levels of automation and standardisation.”