On 26 January 2026, the UK Accelerated Settlement Taskforce (AST) issued its final Quarterly Review of 2025.

A key message in the Quarterly Review is that market participants are expected to already have project plans in place to facilitate the move to T+1 settlement by October 2027. By the end of 2026, participants are expected to have completed the necessary changes to systems and processes and be ready to test those changes. The deadlines for many of the AST’s critical recommendations are at the end of 2026.

Among other things the Quarterly Review notes a survey of financial market infrastructures (FMIs) that it launched last year to establish a benchmark for their level of preparedness for T+1. 21 FMIs took part in the questionnaire with a 100% response rate. General themes across FMIs included:

  • Assessment efforts: All FMIs have already conducted or are conducting impact assessments, with many leveraging experiences from the US T+1 transition.
  • Governance: Steering committees, working groups, and regular board updates are in place as common oversight mechanisms.
  • Operating model: Minimal technical changes are required for many FMIs, especially those already supporting T+1 in other jurisdictions. The remainder are updating documentation, processes, and enabling participant communications.
  • Risk management: Most FMIs believe their current frameworks are robust but will be actively monitoring for increased settlement fails and liquidity risks.
  • Industry coordination: Regular engagement with market participants, industry taskforces, and regulators is widespread. Testing and readiness surveys are either planned or underway.

As regards forthcoming initiatives, the Quarterly Review mentions a:

  • Readiness Register: In early 2026, the AST website will include a ‘Readiness Register.’ This will contain the names of participant firms that have self-certified they already comply with the relevant T+1 recommendations. They are effectively ‘ready for business’ in a post 11/10/2027 T+1 market.
  • Broader view: In 2025, the AST launched an expert video series called ‘The Broader View’ that takes an in-depth look at specific elements of the settlement process. So far there have been two videos on foreign exchange and standard settlement instructions. The series will continue in 2026 with videos planned for exchange traded funds and corporate actions.