With one year to go until the UK and EU transition to T+1 settlement, a leading industry expert is warning that firms are still underestimating the challenge of managing exceptions when settlement time is cut in half.
James Maxfield, Chief Client Officer at Duco, who advises major banks and funds on their preparations for the transition, says that automating post-trade processes will only get firms so far. His comments come as the FCA has warned it could take an increasingly intrusive approach with firms lagging in their preparations ahead of the Sunday, 11 October 2026 deadline.
"One year out from the deadline might seem like a long time, but there are still major challenges to address and test in the next 12 months to make the move to T+1 a success," said Maxfield.
The bigger question, he argues, is what happens when a trade breaks late in the day or when activity suddenly spikes — and there is far less time to investigate and resolve the issue.
"Zero exceptions is an admirable goal but highly unrealistic, so firms need to go beyond automating post-trade activities like allocation and address the question of who, or what, is in charge when something doesn't match up at 22:00 on trade date," Maxfield added.
He believes 24/7 AI agents will play an increasingly important role, helping firms investigate and resolve exceptions in real time rather than leaving them for operations teams to pick up later. Some firms are already beginning to leverage this technology across their exception management workflows.
Maxfield also noted that T+1 will not be the end point, arguing that firms that build smarter post-trade operations now will be better positioned for any future move towards T0.
