The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has received inconclusive responses to key issues around costs, operational impact, and the effect on market liquidity of shortening the settlement cycle in the European Union (E.U.). The E.U.’s regulatory body overseeing financial markets deferred drawing conclusions on many aspects, opting instead to glean insights from North America’s… Read More >>
BBH Targets Securities Lending Ops Amid T+1
Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. (BBH) is offering a third-party solution intended to help firms avoid securities lending failures while processing transactions in the trading day plus one (T+1) settlement cycle that begins in late May of this year in North America. Hoping to smooth its North American clients’ transition to T+1, BBH is partnering… Read More >>
Time to Step Up Your T+1 Game?
Another T+1 readiness survey has highlighted a persistent lack of preparedness among buy-side firms as the summer deadline for the T+1 transition for the U.S., Canada, and Mexico approaches. Despite the Depository Trust and Clearing Corp.’s (DTCC) assurances, recent reports from vendors and banks depict concerning levels of unpreparedness among investment managers. This lack of… Read More >>
Buy Side Seeks FX T+1 Settlement Workarounds
Gary Gensler, chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) descended upon a European Commission workshop on T+1 settlement last week to urge regulators to include foreign exchange (FX) in their efforts to reduce settlement times in coordination with central banks, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), and CLS Bank. One trade association in… Read More >>
Europe’s T+1 Lag Could Spur Global Settlement Disarray
The impending switch to T+1 settlement in North America scheduled for May 28, 2024, has raised concerns in Europe, where market participants report a lack of international testing. Although not officially moving to T+1 just yet, Europe launched its T+1 taskforce led by the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) in March last year. In early conversations… Read More >>
Ops Woes & Revenues Surge for Securities Lending
A key report finds that securities lending revenues surged last year and so did operational workloads, which makes the case for more automated reconciliation systems that process transactions in real-time, industry expert Roy Zimmerhansl tells FTF News. In 2023, the global securities finance industry set a record with $10.7 billion in revenue for lenders, according to… Read More >>
BBH Takes Aim at Latencies in Securities Lending
(To help its securities lending clients with their transition to T+1 shorter settlement, Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH) is examining securities loan recall lifecycles to find any latencies that may be caused by batch processing or bespoke messaging for Swift processes, says Sarah Holmes, global head of securities lending at BBH. In her new role, Holmes… Read More >>
T+1 Will Create a Complex Choreography for Ops
When the North American securities industry starts settling trades the day after they’re executed in May 2024, it will be the culmination of a process dating back at least 30 years. Shortly after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) cut the trade settlement cycle in 1993 to the third business day following trade execution (T+3)… Read More >>
T+1 Could Expose Ops Woes for Many Firms
The pain, suffering, and costs of doing business in the global securities industry are likely to increase as a result of the push for shorter settlement cycles, which is underway in the U.S. and Canada as firms there transition to trading day plus one, a.k.a. T+1. That was one of the unvarnished takeaways from a… Read More >>
T+1 Will Overhaul Securities Lending: Report
A new report from Citi — “Securities Services Evolution 2023” — argues that the move to shorter, T+1 settlement will leave no one in securities operations untouched. However, the report strongly argues that securities lending is in for a rollercoaster ride as securities firms move to T+1. Firms and other market participants will need to… Read More >>
