About a-team Marketing Services
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry

A-Team Insight Blogs

US Reduces Settlement Timeframe from T+3 to T+2 Effective Immediately

Subscribe to our newsletter

The US T+2 Industry Steering Committee has achieved its objective of reducing settlement time to trade data plus two days (T+2) for securities including US equity, corporate and municipal bonds, and unit investment trust trades. The settlement cycle was last changed in 1995 from T+5 to T+3 and brings the US in line with the EU, which moved to T+2 settlement in January 2015.

The steering committee was set up by DTCC in 2014 and is co-chaired by the Investment Company Institute (ICI) and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (Sifma). The reduction in settlement time is expected to reduce market and counterparty risk, increase financial stability and improve safety and efficiency for investors and market participants. The alignment of the US settlement timeframe with other major markets that use T+2 settlement also provides a step towards global settlement harmonisation.

The SEC finalised rule changes to facilitate the shorter settlement cycle in March 2017, and nine other regulators and self-regulatory organisations have also taken action. DTCC estimates the lower levels of risk associated with a shorter settlement cycle will reduce the average daily capital requirements for clearing trades through its DTCC National Securities Clearing Corporation by approximately 25%, or $1.36 billion.

Murray Pozmanter, head of clearing agency services and global operations and client services at DTCC, comments: “The US move to a T+2 settlement cycle marks the most significant change to the market’s settlement cycle in over 20 years. A collaborative industry-driven effort with strong support from regulators, the T+2 initiative has achieved its common goal.”

Subscribe to our newsletter

Related content

WEBINAR

Recorded Webinar: Address Emerging Operational Risk and Alleviating Data Blind Spots with AI Powered Risk Management

The digitalisation of financial services is in full flight, as financial institutions strive to offer the same levels of service and improved customer experience that consumer markets have enjoyed for some time. This digitalisation – providing seamless access to appropriate services on demand – requires great emphasis on client data. This changing digital landscape, and...

BLOG

Regulations in the Balance as Institutions Remain Sustainability-Focussed: ESG Summit London Review

Despite a perception that ESG is in retreat around the world, financial institutions continue to take the issue very seriously as a matter of risk management, a trend that continues to exert an influence on the data demands of organisations. It isn’t even the compliance imperatives of organisations operating in heavily regulated parts of the...

EVENT

RegTech Summit London

Now in its 9th year, the RegTech Summit in London will bring together the RegTech ecosystem to explore how the European capital markets financial industry can leverage technology to drive innovation, cut costs and support regulatory change.

GUIDE

The DORA Implementation Playbook: A Practitioner’s Guide to Demonstrating Resilience Beyond the Deadline

The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) has fundamentally reshaped the European Union’s financial regulatory landscape, with its full application beginning on January 17, 2025. This regulation goes beyond traditional risk management, explicitly acknowledging that digital incidents can threaten the stability of the entire financial system. As the deadline has passed, the focus is now shifting...