Gavekal Capital: Majority of Europe Moves to T+2

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Majority of Europe Moves to T+2


Yesterday, most of the European equity markets migrated to a trade date plus two (T+2) settlement cycle, with the exception of Spain, which is slated to adopt the change in Q4 2015, and Germany which has already been settling trades at T+2 for several years.  As an aside, the US remains at T+3.    

The Central Securities Depositories Regulation (CSDR) had mandated that all European Economic Area (EEA) countries move to T+2 by 1/1/2015, and most countries moved ahead of that schedule.  A list of the countries that moved include:  Austria, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. 

October 8th will be the settlement date for trades placed in these countries on both October 3rd and 6th, which means that volumes are expected to be higher than normal, so a seamless transition through advance planning and automation of processes will be important to avoid failed trades and potential overdraft charges.