T+1 in Europe: The Critical Importance of SSIs | DTCC
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T+1 in Europe:
The Critical Role of SSIs

Standing Settlement Instructions (SSIs) sit at the heart of every successful trade.

Under T+1's compressed timelines, the buffer firms have relied on to detect and correct errors disappears, making the accuracy, completeness and timely availability of SSIs a key enabler of settlement success.

DTCC was joined by the Financial Markets Standards Board (FMSB), BNP Paribas and SSImple for an interactive webinar exploring the critical role of SSIs for T+1 readiness.

Key Takeaways

1 Automate 2 Communicate 3 Collaborate

The endorsement of the FMSB’s Standards for the Sharing of SSIs by both the UK Accelerated Settlement Taskforce and the EU T+1 Industry Committee further underscores the importance of automated SSI management to strengthen industry readiness for Europe T+1.

We asked all of our panellists: “What’s the one thing you would urge market participants to do now to improve SSI readiness ahead of October 2027?”

Watch the video for their recommendations

2 min view

The Regulatory Landscape

In this session, Mimi Yan from the Financial Markets Standards Board (FMSB) talked to event host, Ben Johnson from DTCC, about the issues surrounding SSIs and what the FMSB has delivered to tackle the problem.

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“SSI standardisation is really important. With the limited time you have available under T+1, you need to be sure that what your counterparty understands to be an apple is the same as what you do.”

Mimi Yan, Technical Director, Financial Markets Standards Board

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Q. What are the FMSB’s core principles and recommendations?

A. The FMSB Standards for the Sharing of SSIs are a set of principles, taxonomies and templates that can apply to all products and markets. These guidelines are the foundations of SSI T+1 readiness. The standards recommend the automation of your own SSIs and any SSIs you manage on behalf of clients, or the use of standardised templates if you must resort to manual sharing.

Q. Is there alignment across Europe on SSIs?

A. Both the UK Accelerated Settlement Taskforce and the EU T+1 Industry Committee have confirmed that the FMSB’s Standards – including its taxonomies and templates – meets their requirements for pre-settlement SSI data storage and exchange, with some additional mandatory data elements required by the EU T+1 Industry Committee.

Q. Who is ultimately responsible for complying with the FMSB standards?

A. Everyone is responsible and clear communication with all counterparties is critical.

Europe's Manual Long Tail

We were joined by James Maher, T+1 Project Lead for Global Markets Operations at BNP Paribas, and DTCC’s Jan Coughlan, to discuss the impact of manual SSI processes in a T+1 environment and why the “manual long tail” persists.

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“T+1 is only as strong as the weakest dependency in the settlement cycle. Recent research shows that the market is now awake to T+1, but not yet operationally ready in the areas that matter the most.”

James Maher, T+1 Project Lead for Global Markets Operations, BNP Paribas

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“A single SSI break doesn't just impact one firm, it can disrupt the entire settlement chain. So the real cost isn't just operational, it's systemic; impacting counterparties, liquidity, client experience, and ultimately market efficiency.”

Jan Coughlan, ITP Product Management Optimization and Adoption, DTCC

22 min view

Q. What is the “manual long tail” and why does it matter?

A. The manual long tail is those market participants that still rely on manual processes – PDFs, spreadsheets, and static data. These clients often only become visible when a trade fails and fixes are required for the trade to settle. Under T+1, the buffer that has been relied upon to fix issues disappears. The long tail isn’t the largest clients by volume, but it can consume disproportionate operational capacity.

Q. Why do manual SSI processes persist?

A. The problem is not a technology gap but a behavioural change that’s required across the ecosystem. For smaller and lower volume firms the business case to automate was harder to justify and T+2 enables inefficiencies to be absorbed. However, incremental fixes will not scale under T+1.

DTCC has developed a package specifically for lower volume firms that brings together trade matching, SSI management and enrichment, allowing these firms to automate. Learn more

Q. Are firms weighing cost vs settlement risk appropriately?

A. Settlement risk now has an explicit daily cost which becomes very visible in terms of late instructions, manual chasing and failed settlement. In addition to the additional resource cost and loss of time, there is also the cost of claims and penalties to consider. However, the cost sits in different places – technology, operations, finance – which means the true cost can be underestimated.

Q. What are the biggest dependencies to SSI readiness?

A. Among the audience at our event, SSI standardization was voted the biggest dependency to SSI readiness, with 44%. Mimi Yan already highlighted earlier in the event the importance of standardization. An SSI is not just the sort code and an account number. There are multiple data points within an SSI and ensuring consistency across clients and counterparties is key.

Why SSIs are Mission Critical to T+1

In this session, we discussed how industry-wide collaboration is driving change with CEO & Founder of SSImple, Bill Meenaghan.

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“For me personally, I think all SSIs should be automated. There shouldn't be any manual sharing of SSIs.”

Bill Meenaghan, CEO & Founder, SSImple

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Q. What steps should firms be taking to address the SSI challenges posted by Europe T+1?

A. This is a network challenge, not a firm-by-firm issue. T+1 is an opportunity not just to meet higher standards, but to build a more resilient, standardized, future-ready post-trade ecosystem. Firms should be following the principles of the FMSB Standards and insisting that their counterparties do the same too

Q. How is industry-wide collaboration driving standardization and operational efficiency?

A. The DTCC and SSImple partnership aims to further strengthen data governance and reduce settlement risk, while aligning with the FMSB’s recommendations. The collaboration helps custodians eliminate manual complexity and improve data quality by seamlessly feeding clean, validated SSIs into DTCC’s ALERT platform.

How we can help

Post-trade processing solutions

Our trade processing solutions automate, optimize and accelerate every stage of the post-trade lifecycle

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DTCC Consulting

We’re helping firms navigate the complexities of transitioning to T+1 across diverse European markets and build for what’s next

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Are you T+1 ready?

Access Europe T+1 FAQs and the latest resources to help you on your T+1 journey

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T+1 in Europe: De-risking The Transition

Firms that act early to prepare for Europe T+1 will be best placed to reduce risk, manage complexity, and ensure they are ready.

To coincide with the release of the UK and EU T+1 Test Strategy, DTCC hosted an interactive webinar exploring practical steps firms should be taking now to de-risk the transition and move from awareness to action.

Learn More
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