These and other key insights are included in SIFMA’s recently published 2025 Operations Conference & Exhibition Debrief, which is highly recommended reading as it touches on many of the areas in which markets, regulations and changes in investor behavior intersect.

We bring you some of the key highlights in the brief article below.

Significant market structure transformation

In the debrief SIFMA points to a backdrop of significant key transformations currently impacting financial market structure including:

• a transition to T+1 settlement;
• impending changes to Treasury clearing deadlines; and
• faster than expected progress on extended trading hours for equities.

Accelerated settlement has proven operationally challenging for firms because the UK and EU lag behind, with October 2027 being targeted for transition to a T+1 regime in those jurisdictions. And Australia and Singapore “may delay their accelerated settlement efforts until after 2027.”

Operational teams are being warned that the adoption of accelerated settlement in the UK and EU will now also probably coincide with the changes to central clearing for the Treasury market, which is proving to be a real challenge for industry.

The rapidly approaching implementation deadlines (December 2026 for cash treasuries, June 2027 for repo) are raising some concern and calls for an “extended timeline” because of the number of issues that “remain unresolved”, calls that were seemingly acknowledged by regulators at the event. Issues mentioned that still require clarification include:

• the scope of international entities subject to clearing requirements;
• double margining concerns for money market funds;
• the treatment of mixed-collateral triparty transactions; and
• continuing debate on the clearing model with a done-away clearing being held to be more efficient than done-with.

In contrast there seems to be real appetite for the expeditious adoption of an extended trading day on the part of industry. But there also remain some open questions around the definition of such an extended trading day, its supervision and compliance implications, as well as more prosaic issues such as data, staffing and resilience.

High hopes for new SEC administration

Despite the challenges highlighted during the event the American economy and markets remain very robust with expanding liquidity and record trading volumes across asset classes, even amid elevated volatility. Industry participants also called the US equity markets in their current state “highly efficient.”

There was an expectation that SEC rulemaking going forward will be cognizant of this and, as a consequence, adopt a “more technical and data-driven approach” that is also more open to industry views and comments.

At the event, industry participants expressed concern about past rule making activity by the SEC. But it was Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) that came in for particularly pointed criticism.

Its “high costs and inefficiencies” were castigated and serious concerns were raised around the customer database, something recently highlighted by Citadel Securities, as well as the nature and volume of data being captured and stored.

There was worry around the growth in exchange-listed stocks trading below one dollar, which is raising issues of investor protection as well as potential market distortion and a suggestion that such stocks should be OTC traded instead. So perhaps this is one area where SEC action may be necessary and might be welcomed by market participants.

AI, data and third parties in the spotlight once again

Changes in investment trends are also having an impact on both markets and industry players. Investors are increasingly diversifying their portfolios to new products (e.g. ETFs, short-dated options, digital assets, etc) and are also incorporating private market assets into these and firms need to respond to these trends.

The changes are accentuating the need for better back-office tools and systems, but in particular the need to ensure that firms have “clean, structured data” in all areas of their operation because  “all technology – whether old or new – relies on data.”

Data is held to be key not only because it helps identify problems and shape solutions, but also because it “underlies technological innovations and operational efficiencies”. But, of course, the “right systems and tools” are also needed not only to take full advantage of the opportunity that access to data represents, but also to avoid drowning “in the sea of data”.

Industry players are also increasingly recognizing the critical nature of operational resilience, particularly in the context of outsourcing technology and process.

There was broad consensus that an understanding of “the full life cycle and how processes flow through all internal and external partners” is necessary as is working with third- and fourth party vendors to accomplish this because “all industry partners are intertwined.”

Finally, looking forward, AI and automation as well as digital assets were highlighted as key areas of innovation. But in an audience poll 57% of respondents believed that AI and automation would be the next big transformation in operation in the next 3-5 years, while only 3% believed the same about digital assets and blockchain.

The focus on operational change is probably responsible for this interesting contrast in responses and such a conclusion is to a certain extent supported by the panelists noting that “blockchain holds enormous potential”, particularly in terms of cost saving and efficiency.

Resources for compliance teams

To assist compliance professionals in the ongoing operational lift for firms (ones that could persist beyond the transition date) in connection with T+1 settlement, SIFMA has the following resources available.

• SIFMA’s T+1 Command Center, will provide conversion status information, transparency into the activity of other participants, and serve as a forum for issue identification and socialization. The T+1 Command Center’s support will be most active during the conversion period, from Friday, May 24 through Friday, May 31.
• The SIFMA, Depository Trust & Clearing (DTCC) and Investment Company Institute (ICI) offer a T+1 Playbook, which is a roadmap to accelerated settlement and outlines a detailed approach to identifying the implementation activities, timelines, dependencies, and risk impacts that market participants need to consider as they undergo transition. The Playbook also provides members with tools to assist them in the analysis and execution of their project management teams.
• SIFMA, Canadian Capital Markets Association (CCMA) and International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) have published a T+1 Settlement Cycle Booklet that provides summary information ranging from the scope of the transition, the final SEC Rule, and foreign exchange market considerations to the possible impacts to relevant securities and over-the-counter derivatives transactions.
• SIFMA also has an informative page on the impending Treasury clearing rules, which includes a link to a specially commissioned U.S. Treasury Central Clearing: Industry Considerations Report as well as a document addressing FAQs stemming from this.