New research uncover a gap between market ambition and operational reality
We’ve just released brand new research that reveals a UK post trade market that is preparing for T+1 while already looking towards T+0, tokenised markets and atomic settlement. The opportunity is significant, but delivering it will require greater automation, common data standards and coordination across the market.
Capital markets in the UK and EU are approaching an important transition. Trade execution can already happen in milliseconds, yet the rights and obligations created by a transaction still need to pass through multiple organisations, systems and market infrastructures before settlement is complete.
The move to T+1 on 11 October 2027 will compress this process further. At the same time, tokenisation and digital settlement are moving into institutional planning, raising a bigger question: can the investment required for T+1 provide the foundations for a future of more automated and, where appropriate, atomic settlement?
To understand how prepared the UK market is, Tokenovate commissioned Censuswide to survey 250 senior post trade professionals across investment banks, banks with capital markets activities, custodians, buy side firms and financial market infrastructures. The findings reveal a market with considerable ambition, alongside significant operational work still to be done.
Automation is widespread, but manual processing persists
At first glance, the industry appears highly automated. 99% of respondents report at least some post trade automation. Yet nearly every organisation surveyed continues to rely significantly on manual processing somewhere in the lifecycle, particularly across allocation management, reconciliation and trade confirmation.
This is important. T+1 gives firms less time to identify discrepancies, resolve exceptions and prevent settlement failures. Automating individual tasks will therefore only address part of the challenge. The wider requirement is to connect processes across the lifecycle so that information can move consistently between counterparties, custodians, infrastructure providers and internal systems.
That dependency is already recognised by the market. 80% of respondents say reliance on external counterparties and infrastructure providers significantly or severely constrains their ability to modernise. Post trade transformation is consequently an ecosystem challenge as much as an internal technology programme.
Data remains a fundamental constraint
The research identifies data fragmentation as one of the clearest barriers to further automation. 88% of respondents describe fragmented data as a critical or significant challenge. There are encouraging signs of convergence around standards. 93% are familiar with the FINOS Common Domain Model (CDM), yet only 38% are actively implementing or using it.
Closing this gap will be important.
The CDM provides a common semantic representation of transactions, products and lifecycle events. Used as a shared semantic layer, it can allow custodians, asset managers, banks and market infrastructures to interpret lifecycle data consistently, reducing reconciliation and providing a stronger foundation for deterministic automation. The next stage of post trade modernisation therefore requires standards to move from awareness into operational workflows.
T+1 confidence is running ahead of readiness
The industry is broadly confident about October 2027, but the research identifies a gap between confidence and current operational readiness. While most respondents expect to meet the T+1 deadline, fewer than a third describe themselves as fully prepared today. Funding presents another constraint, with only 41% saying their combined T+1 readiness and wider post trade transformation programme is fully funded.
This creates an important strategic choice. Firms can approach T+1 primarily as a deadline driven remediation programme, or use the investment to address some of the underlying structural issues that make settlement difficult to compress in the first place. The latter approach creates a foundation that can support further change after 2027.
Atomic settlement is moving onto the near-term agenda
The research suggests that the market is already thinking beyond T+1. 79% of respondents have T+0 or real time settlement on their agenda, while 63% are already live with, or piloting, tokenised settlement. Respondents expect widespread UK atomic settlement within an average of just 3.7 years.
Atomic settlement enables the transfer of an asset and its corresponding payment to occur as a single, indivisible event. In appropriate markets, this can reduce settlement risk and support greater capital efficiency.
The economic motivation is also clear. Almost every respondent regards capital trapped by slow or fragmented settlement as a material cost or risk. The benefits firms associate with real time settlement extend across regulatory certainty, liquidity release, interoperability and lower operational risk.
Importantly, the whitepaper also recognises that the case for atomic settlement varies by market structure. Bilateral and collateral intensive markets can present particularly compelling opportunities, while markets that derive substantial liquidity efficiencies from netting require a different assessment. The objective should therefore be to apply faster settlement where its economics and risk characteristics support it.
Three priorities for atomic readiness
The research points towards three practical priorities: standardise data, connect automation and orchestrate settlement.
First, firms need common representations of transactions and lifecycle events embedded within production systems. Standards such as the CDM can provide the semantic consistency required for different organisations and infrastructures to process the same lifecycle state with less reconciliation.
Second, automation needs to extend across organisational boundaries. Allocation, confirmation, reconciliation, collateral movement, exception handling and settlement are interconnected processes. Tokenovate’s Workflows as a Service approach is designed around this requirement, using standards-native workflows to automate lifecycle activity while integrating with existing institutional infrastructure.
Third, the market needs the ability to orchestrate settlement across both existing and emerging networks. That means determining obligations, mobilising liquidity and coordinating cash and asset transfers with clear legal treatment and settlement finality. It also means avoiding a new generation of disconnected digital infrastructure.
Together, these capabilities provide a progression from T+1 readiness towards atomic readiness.
Can the UK lead?
Yes, it can! 74% of respondents believe the UK is well positioned to lead globally in digital market infrastructure and atomic settlement. And the UK starts with considerable advantages, including deep capital markets, established institutions, legal expertise, technology capability and active engagement between industry and regulators. Leadership, however, will depend on execution.
Common standards need to become operational. Automation needs to connect organisations as well as internal systems. Existing and emerging infrastructure needs to interoperate. Legal frameworks need to provide certainty as new settlement models move from pilots towards institutional scale.
T+1 provides an immediate catalyst for making those changes. The more important opportunity is to ensure that investment made for October 2027 also prepares the market for what follows.
The research suggests that future may arrive relatively quickly. With T+0 already on the agenda for most respondents and widespread atomic settlement expected within around four years, the decisions being made today will shape the UK’s post trade infrastructure well beyond the T+1 deadline.
The race to atomic settlement has begun. The UK’s opportunity is to build the standards, automation and interoperable infrastructure that can turn market ambition into operational reality.
Download the full whitepaper here.