On 19 February 2025, HM Treasury (HMT), the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Bank of England (BoE) confirmed that they support the industry recommendation to move to T+1 settlement in UK markets by 11 October 2027, as set out in the Accelerated Settlement Taskforce Technical Group’s report published on 6 February 2025.

The Technical Group report recommends 12 ‘critical’ and 26 ‘highly recommended’ actions to facilitate a successful transition to T+1. Many of these recommendations are for market participants and will be implemented through a new ‘T+1 code of conduct’.

Government response to the Technical Group report

For the recommendations in the Technical Group report that relate to the Government, HMT notes in its response that:

  • The key action for Government is to bring forward secondary legislation to change the current T+2 requirement under the UK Central Securities Depositories Regulation to a T+1 requirement. The Government accepts this recommendation and will introduce legislation making this change when Parliamentary time allows.
  • The Government also accepts the recommendation that T+1 should come into effect in the UK on 11 October 2027, to give firms time to prepare for the move while preventing a “lengthy period of misalignment with other key jurisdictions”.
  • Finally, the Government agrees that the Accelerated Settlement Taskforce should (in its final phase of work) oversee implementation of the recommendations until the transition to T+1 has been successfully delivered, and for a short period afterwards to assess the short-term impacts. On that basis, HMT has published updated Terms of Reference setting out updated objectives and a governance structure for the next phase of the work, noting also that relevant industry chairs from the EU and Switzerland will be invited to attend meetings as observers.

FCA statement and new webpage

The FCA has published a statement welcoming the Technical Group report and confirming its support for the transition to T+1 settlement in UK markets. Its chief executive, Nikhil Rathi, commented: “We highlighted how the move to T+1 will make our markets more efficient and support growth in our recent letter to the Prime Minister. We will support industry as they move to T+1 and expect firms to engage and plan early.”

Further information on T+1 settlement is set out on a new FCA webpage, which also includes information on what firms should do.

Next steps

HMT, the FCA and the BoE are calling on industry to engage with the recommendations and start their planning as soon as possible, so that they are ready for 11 October 2027 to be the first day of trading under a T+1 standard.

The FCA notes that firms should determine now what is required to move to a T+1 settlement cycle and plan early to deliver this transition. It flags that as part of its monitoring ahead of implementation, it may have discussions with firms, directly or via trade associations, to understand firm preparedness including how their activities align with the recommendations of the AST.