Investment Association Publishes T+1 Settlement Best Practices With AFME and UK Finance

The Investment Association (IA) published joint industry best practices in January 2026 together with AFME (the Association for Financial Markets in Europe) and UK Finance covering the usage of Place of Safekeeping (PSAF/SAFE) and Place of Settlement (PSET) data fields, as part of the preparation for the UK and EU moving to a T+1 settlement cycle in 2027.

The guidance, published alongside a comprehensive report titled "T+1 Settlement: Navigating the UK, EU and Swiss Transition", is designed to support firms in improving operational resilience, enhancing data alignment, and reducing settlement-related friction across different markets. The UK and EU are both planning to transition to T+1, following the United States, which completed its own T+1 shift in 2024.

T+1 settlement, where securities transactions are settled one business day after trade execution, rather than the current two days, requires significant changes to back-office processes, systems, and data quality standards. The IA's guidance focuses particularly on the matching and alignment of settlement location data, which is a common source of settlement failures that will become more costly under a shorter settlement window.

The publication follows the IA's wider T+1 readiness programme coordinated with AFME and other market infrastructure bodies. The IA's 250 members manage £9.1 trillion of assets.