Val Wotton, DTCC 

Val Wotton, Head of Equities Solutions at DTCC, opened the event highlighting the strong progress already made, supported by UK Taskforce standards, implementation guidance and regulatory engagement. Europe’s market complexity makes industry collaboration essential in this final year and DTCC is here to support readiness through automation, regulatory alignment and improved settlement and asset servicing processes. 

“T+1 is a significant milestone. But it's also an opportunity and catalyst for broader transformation.”

Val Wotton, Global Head of Equities Solutions, DTCC

Pre-settlement Panel: The Automation Imperative 

Panelists Mimi Yan (FMSB), Daniel Hickey (State Street), Paul Fulton (Citi) and Matthew Johnson (DTCC), joined facilitator Emma Miles (Euroclear), discussed the importance of automation, eliminating manual processes and improving data quality to prepare for the operational impacts of a shorter settlement cycle.  

The panel highlighted that poor Standing Settlement Instructions remain a significant source of settlement risk, stressing that firms must move away from fragmented, manual processes and establish clearer ownership, stronger governance and greater automation to ensure SSIs are accurate, timely and consistently maintained across the trade lifecycle.

Regulatory Expectations for a Successful T+1 Transition 

Jamie Bell (FCA) joined Andrew Douglas (UK Accelerated Settlement Taskforce) to discuss the regulatory expectations for the UK's transition to T+1 and the actions firms must take over the next 12 months to ensure readiness. 
 
A central theme of the discussion was the importance of automation. While the FCA continues to take a principles-based approach, Jamie emphasized that automation will be critical to achieving the benefits of T+1 and building a more resilient, future-ready market. 

“What we learnt from the U.S. [transition to T+1] is that those firms who did not automate, and were struggling, had to throw a lot of human capital at the problem. That is extremely expensive and often quite unreliable in a crisis. A few buy-side firms in the U.S. are still paying the price for that today. So this is the moment to make that investment.”

Jamie Bell, Head of Capital Markets, Financial Conduct Authority

Delivering Europe T+1 Together: The Power of Industry Collaboration 

Bringing together leaders from the UK, EU and Swiss T+1 Taskforces, this fireside chat explored how collaboration across markets, regulators and industry bodies is helping drive readiness for Europe T+1. 
 
Giovanni Sabbatini (EU T+1 Industry Committee), Florentin Soliva (swissSPTC Task Force T+1) and Andrew Douglas (UK Accelerated Settlement Taskforce), joined a discussion moderated by Virginie O'Shea (Firebrand Research). They shared their perspectives on what it will take to deliver Europe T+1 across more than 30 markets, highlighting the scale of coordination required. 

“The first critical milestone is not 11 October 2027. The first critical milestone [for the EU] is 7 December this year. Without automation, you will not be able to achieve this result and for those who have not yet automated their processes, it’s becoming too late.”

Giovanni Sabbatini, Independent Chair, EU T+1 Industry Committee

Settlement and Asset Servicing in a T+1 Environment Panel 

The final panel of the day, moderated by Ben Johnson (DTCC), focused on the settlement of UK assets, equities and gilts in a T+1 environment.

Panelists Emma Johnson (The ValueExchange), Richard Nicholls (Corporate Actions Lead, UK Accelerated Settlement Taskforce) and Charlie Pugh (Euroclear UK & International) pointed to initiatives including extended CREST opening hours, enhancements to claims remediation processes, and the continued focus on improving settlement data quality and SSI management. 

Paul Miles, Euroclear 

Closing the event, Euroclear’s Paul Miles described an “air of confidence, but not complacency” around the UK’s preparedness for T+1. Industry-wide collaboration will remain critical because, as he noted, “T+1 will only succeed if we move forward together.” 
 
With twelve months to go, firms must continue to engage openly with counterparties and understand critical dependencies across the settlement ecosystem: who depends on whom, when does the information arrive, and what happens when something goes wrong.

“T+1 is a major operational change, but the work being done now will make the market more efficient and prepare us for the future.”

Paul Miles, Chief Business Officer and Executive Director, Euroclear UK & International