On 6 February 2025, HM Treasury published an implementation plan for the UK’s transition from T+2 to T+1 securities settlement, produced by the Accelerated Settlement Taskforce (AST) Technical Group.
Background
The AST was created to explore the potential for faster settlement of securities trades in the UK. It published its report in March 2024, which recommended that the UK should move to a T+1 settlement cycle no later than the end of 2027.
A Technical Group was then formed to take forward the next phase of the work. Specifically, it was asked to develop a detailed implementation plan for the UK transition to T+1 and to recommend a date before end of 2027 for this to take place.
Implementation plan
The document produced by the AST Technical Group recommends:
- 12 ‘critical’ and 27 ‘highly recommended’ actions for market participants to implement to facilitate a successful transition to T+1.
- That the UK should move to T+1 on 11 October 2027, and that the Government should set this date by amending the relevant part of the UK Central Securities Depositories Regulation (CSDR).
- The scope of changes needed to UK CSDR (by statutory instrument) to facilitate the transition to T+1 in the UK whilst remaining flexible enough to accommodate additional jurisdictions such as the EU and Switzerland, which may choose to transition on the same date as the UK.
Next steps
In the next phase of the implementation project, which started in January 2025, the AST plans (at the request of market participants) to continue to support the journey to T+1 by maintaining and developing the ‘T+1 code of conduct’ as necessary, as well as becoming the independent T+1 implementation co-ordinator for UK markets.
HM Treasury notes that it welcomes the report and will set out its response shortly.