The transition to T+1 settlement represents one of the most significant operational shifts the financial industry has seen in years. It is not just a technical change to timelines; it is a redefinition of how markets operate, how firms interact, and how data moves through the trade lifecycle.
Over the past year, as we have worked with firms globally and through our recent industry webinar discussions, it has become clear that success in T+1 will come down to three core factors: readiness, resilience, and collaboration.
Readiness: beyond the checklist
When people talk about T+1 readiness, the focus often falls on testing schedules and systems migration. However, from what we have seen across the industry, true readiness goes well beyond that.
It starts with understanding your operating model, where there are dependencies, where manual processes still exist, and how effectively information flows across functions. Many firms have invested in automation over time, often within silos. The readiness challenge now is connecting those silos into a seamless, end-to-end process.
Operational readiness testing is key to this. Until firms conduct rigorous, end-to-end testing with their ecosystem partners such as custodians, brokers and infrastructure providers, there will continue to be blind spots. T+1 does not allow much room for operational surprises.
Resilience: managing risk in a compressed cycle
The compressed timeline of T+1 fundamentally changes the risk equation. Firms must make trade-offs between speed and resilience, and many are still developing the frameworks to manage both simultaneously.
The emphasis now shifts towards predictive and preventative controls. In a world where settlement happens a day earlier, identifying issues before they trigger downstream failures becomes critical. That means rethinking controls not as static, annual exercises but as dynamic guardrails that adapt in real time.
There is also a technology resilience angle. We have seen that during major transitions, disaster recovery and system availability receive renewed scrutiny. In a T+1 environment, even short system outages can have settlement-wide impacts.
Collaboration: the power of industry alignment
Perhaps the most important lesson from the T+1 journey so far is that no firm can do it alone. Collaboration across firms, custodians, clearing houses and vendors is what will ultimately determine success.
One encouraging development is the growing alignment we are seeing between the European, UK and North American markets. Industry committees and task forces are increasingly connected, sharing lessons, aligning terminology, and seeking common testing frameworks.
This ecosystem-level cooperation will not only help firms meet the immediate T+1 milestones but also build a foundation for future transformation, whether that is T+0 or new digital settlement models.
Turning change into opportunity
While T+1 is a regulatory-driven initiative, it can also serve as a catalyst for modernisation. Many firms are using the move as an opportunity to rationalise systems, revisit data structures, and automate key workflows.
The firms that will ultimately thrive in a T+1 environment are those that approach compliance not as a constraint but as a springboard for efficiency and innovation.
This transition challenges all of us to think differently about speed, risk and collaboration, not just to meet a deadline but to reshape how our markets operate for the long term. At Broadridge Consulting Services, we are supporting firms to turn this change into progress by combining trusted expertise with a practical approach to planning, testing and implementation. Our experience shows that readiness for T+1 is not simply about compliance, it is an opportunity to build stronger, more resilient operating models fit for the future.
