As the U.S. financial markets continue to adapt to the accelerated T+1 settlement cycle, market participants are turning to automation and innovative workflows to meet the new demands.
“The U.S. move to a T+1 settlement cycle was enabled by extensive industry-wide preparation and advanced automation including the adoption and use of CTM, DTCC’s automated central trade matching platform,” said Valentino (Val) Wotton, Managing Director and Global Head of Equities Solutions at DTCC.
On September 9, 2025, The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), announced that BNP Paribas and J.P. Morgan have joined CTM’s automated tri-party matching workflow for prime brokers.
This solution streamlines trade communications between hedge funds, prime brokers, and executing brokers, bringing “greater levels of efficiency” to the global markets— as the UK, EU, Switzerland and Liechtenstein prepare for the move to T+1 settlement by October 2027, according to DTCC.
Today, many prime brokers often receive trade details from hedge funds in various formats and at different times which can extend to T+1, causing delays in post-trade processing, according to DTCC.
According to Wotton, DTCC’s CTM tri-party matching workflow is currently only available in non-U.S. securities markets.
“However, U.S.-based hedge funds that trade in international markets will see the benefits of this automated workflow having been adopted by their non-U.S. based prime brokers, in this case BNP Paribas and J.P. Morgan,” he said.
“The workflow leverages CTM’s automated central matching functionality and provides prime brokers with a golden copy of transaction details when a trade match between a hedge fund and an executing broker takes place, bringing real-time standardization and automation to the trade allocation process,” he added.
By leveraging CTM’s automated central matching functionality, the workflow provides prime brokers with a “golden copy” of transaction details when a trade match takes place between a hedge fund and an executing broker, Wotton said. This “golden copy” becomes the shared, validated version of the trade, eliminating inconsistencies and enabling real-time transparency across all stakeholders.
“Today’s post-trade environment is still heavily fragmented, especially when it comes to trade allocation and communication between hedge funds, executing brokers, and prime brokers,” Wotton explained. “Our tri-party workflow solves this by synchronizing and automating trade communications in real time, ensuring all parties are working off a golden copy of the trade.”
The CTM platform also directly supports straight-through processing by integrating with front-, middle-, and back-office systems, as well as downstream solutions like DTCC’s ALERT database of over 16 million golden source Standing Settlement Instructions (SSIs).
Wotton said that one of the most critical needs in a T+1 environment is same-day affirmation (SDA), the process where trade details are affirmed by all parties within hours of execution—on trade date (T+0). According to Wotton, CTM’s Match to Instruct (M2i) workflow was designed specifically to address this requirement in the U.S. market.
“M2i simplifies what was traditionally a multi-step, manual process,” Wotton explained. “It connects allocation matching in the middle office with confirmation affirmation in the back office, effectively enabling auto-affirmation. Our clients using M2i are consistently hitting nearly 100% SDA rates.”
The impact of automation on post-trade processing has been transformative. “The U.S. move to a T+1 settlement cycle was enabled by extensive industry-wide preparation and advanced automation, including the adoption of CTM,” Wotton said.
“Since the transition, we’ve seen a $3 billion reduction in the clearing fund, a 98% netting efficiency rate, and fail rates that remain consistent with the prior T+2 environment,” he told Traders Magazine.
According to Wotton, currently, U.S. markets are experiencing SDA rates of 95% or more—higher than under T+2—and fail rates between 2–3% in both CNS and non-CNS environments. These results suggest that the combination of centralized matching, automation, and validated trade data is critical to maintaining stability under tighter timelines.
The benefits of CTM extend beyond the U.S., particularly as international markets prepare for T+1 adoption. The tri-party workflow will eventually introduce central clearing capabilities in the U.K. and E.U., unlocking similar netting and clearing opportunities already available in the U.S, he noted.
“As trading volumes grow and global markets move towards shortened settlement cycles, scalability and resilience in post-trade operations will become even more critical,” Wotton said. “Our tri-party workflow lays the groundwork for central clearing capabilities in international markets. We’re working toward introducing netting and clearing opportunities in the U.K. and EU that mirror those in the U.S.”
CTM’s role in creating a more resilient global infrastructure is particularly timely, Wotton noted. With the golden copy acting as a single source of truth for all trade counterparties—and SSIs automatically enriched via ALERT—firms can reduce operational friction, eliminate last-minute reconciliation, and speed up processing from execution to settlement, he said.
“In today’s environment, the margin for error is shrinking while the volume of trades continues to grow,” Wotton said. “By eliminating manual handoffs and standardizing trade data at the point of execution, we’re giving the industry the tools it needs not just to adapt—but to thrive in a T+1 world and beyond,” he added.
Wotton sees the tri-party workflow not just as a short-term solution, but as a critical foundation for the future of global post-trade operations. “T+1 is just the beginning. We’re building solutions that not only meet today’s regulatory requirements but position the industry for a more automated, efficient, and scalable future,” he concluded.
