T+1: The technology is one challenge. Finding the right people is another.

As the financial services industry prepares for accelerated settlement in October 2027, is enough attention being paid to the talent needed to deliver it?

There is a great deal of discussion across financial services about T+1 and the move to a shorter securities settlement cycle. Understandably, much of that conversation focuses on technology, automation, regulation and operational readiness, but there is another serious question worth asking. Who is actually going to deliver all this change?

On 11 October 2027, the UK and EU are scheduled to move to T+1 settlement, reducing the standard settlement period for relevant securities transactions from two business days to one and, on paper, removing a day from the process might sound relatively straightforward. In practice, it has significant implications for the way financial institutions operate, the systems they use and, importantly, the people they need and with less than a year to go, the pressure is building.

The industry is moving, but not everyone is moving at the same speed

The UK has a clear roadmap. The Accelerated Settlement Taskforce's implementation plan outlines 12 critical actions and 26 highly recommended measures to help firms prepare for the transition and there has undoubtedly been progress, but readiness across the market is far from uniform. In August 2026, the Financial Conduct Authority published an interesting assessment entitled T+1 Settlement: Are Firms Ready for 2027? and its findings suggested that while many organisations are making good progress, others still have considerable work ahead of them. The FCA was particularly concerned about parts of the buy-side market, where preparation has been slower.

According to Euroclear's UK Accelerated Settlement Market Survey, 83% of firms were actively engaged with T+1 by the first quarter of 2026, yet only 51% had actually started project work. What I feel is more concerning is that 67% of respondents did not believe their service providers were ready to support the transition and that gives the market a very strong message, that awareness is nowhere near the same as readiness and just because you have a project plan doesn't mean you are in a place to recruit the right the people or even have the resources and capabilities to deliver it.

The talent question is becoming urgent

Whenever the UK Financial Services sector undergoes significant regulatory or operational change, we tend to see a well-established reaction. Our  organisations assess the requirements, establish projects, allocate budgets and start to the expertise needed to deliver them. The difficulty comes when multiple institutions start looking for similar skills at broadly the same time, and as an FS recruiter, i have seen this story before.

T+1 has the potential to create precisely that situation. Firstly, consider the range of expertise involved because our firms need people who understand post-trade operations, securities settlement, custody, reconciliations and exception management. Alongside them, they need experienced transformation professionals, business analysts, technology specialists, programme managers and risk professionals.

These are not entirely separate requirements, because the most valuable individuals are often those who can bridge the gap between technical knowledge and practical delivery. Clients require not only someone who understands the complexities of settlement, but who can also lead process improvement, challenge established ways of working and bring different stakeholders together is particularly valuable.

These individuals are not necessarily available in unlimited numbers. The DTCC's reflections on the European transition also highlight the important distinction that Europe cannot simply replicate the US experience from 2024. The number of jurisdictions, regulatory frameworks and market infrastructures involved makes the European transition considerably more complex.

Another complexity makes experienced people even more valuable.

Should FS firms be looking beyond traditional T+1 experience?

One concern is that employers could become too prescriptive about the experience they want. it is self-evident that someone who has already worked on a T+1 implementation programme will be attractive but professionals with direct experience of the US transition will aslso bring particularly useful insights.

We have to ask though, how many organisations will be competing for that same relatively limited group? So there must be another plan because that pool is too limited and there is a strong argument for looking more broadly at transferable expertise.

Financial services has spent decades managing complex transformation, from regulatory reform and market infrastructure changes to large-scale technology migrations. Our institutions have developed substantial pools of professionals who understand how to deliver difficult programmes against fixed deadlines and a senior change professional who has successfully delivered a major securities operations transformation may have much of the expertise required, even without direct T+1 experience.

Similarly, experienced operational leaders who understand the trade lifecycle, risk management and the challenges of working across multiple counterparties could play a significant role, so for employers, the important distinction is between the knowledge someone absolutely must possess and the skills they can bring from comparable programmes.

The case for interim and contract expertise

T+1 has a fixed implementation date, but many of the changes being introduced will have a lasting impact on operating models.

This creates two distinct workforce requirements. The first is the permanent capability needed to operate successfully in a T+1 environment. The second is the additional expertise and capacity required to get there and these two should not automatically be treated as the same thing.

Experienced interim and contract professionals can make a significant contribution during periods of intense transformation by providing specialist knowledge, lead defined workstreams, strengthen project delivery and relieve pressure on existing teams. This is particularly relevant when business-as-usual responsibilities cannot simply be put to one side while a major implementation takes place.

But there is also a commercial consideration because bringing in experienced specialists for a defined period could be more cost-effective than building permanent teams around requirements that will change significantly once implementation is complete.

I would argue that where organisations identify long-term gaps in technology, operational leadership or risk expertise, permanent appointments would represent the better investment, but this may be the exception, rather than the rule, when it comes to T+1

The key is making those decisions quickly, rather than reacting when deadlines become uncomfortable and with under a year now left, my suggestion is that thinking needs to be done now!

Leadership matters just as much as technical expertise

One aspect of T+1 that deserves more attention is the leadership challenge because, for a start, this is not a project that can sit comfortably within one department. Operations, technology, trading, compliance, risk and external service providers all have a part to play and the transition requires co-ordination across functions that have different priorities, systems and ways of working.

Strong leadership is essential.

The people leading these programmes need to understand the commercial and operational implications of the changes, communicate effectively with senior stakeholders and make difficult decisions about investment, resources and priorities. They also need to recognise that a technically successful implementation is not necessarily the same as a sustainable operating model. At the DTCC's October 2026 T+1 countdown event, a recurring theme was the importance of automation, collaboration and understanding dependencies across the entire settlement chain.

It reinforces a point that applies to almost every major transformation programme: technology can enable change, but it is people who make it happen.

What happens after October 2027?

There is another reason why financial institutions should be thinking carefully about talent because T+1 is not the end of the story. The move towards faster settlement sits within a much broader transformation of financial markets, driven by automation, digital infrastructure, better data and the continuing evolution of operational processes.

Skills required within post-trade functions are likely to evolve accordingly and whilst traditional operational knowledge will remain important, increasingly it will need to sit alongside technology awareness, data analysis, process improvement and the ability to manage more automated environments.

For employers, this creates an opportunity to look beyond immediate recruitment requirements and consider the capabilities they want their organisations to possess over the next five years which is likely to involve recruiting new expertise, but should also include developing existing employees who already understand the business and its operational challenges.

The organisations that use T+1 as an opportunity to strengthen their wider capabilities may find themselves in a much better position beyond the implementation date.

A conversation worth having now

The transition to T+1 is well underway, and considerable progress has already been made across the industry but I strongly feel, as the deadline approaches, it is worth remembering that operational readiness and workforce readiness are closely connected.

Financial institutions should be asking themselves whether they have sufficient specialist expertise, whether their existing teams have the capacity to deliver the remaining work and whether they are taking a sufficiently flexible approach to securing the skills they need.

So I ask this, are your recruitment plans are looking far enough ahead? The expertise needed for implementation, testing and post-transition optimisation will not necessarily be identical.

For those organisations still identifying gaps, the coming months will be important.

Ultimately, T+1 may be about reducing the time it takes to settle a trade, but delivering that change successfully will depend on having the right people, in the right roles, at the right time.

At Meraki Talent, our specialist Financial Services teams work with organisations across operations, technology, change and transformation, risk and regulatory disciplines and we understand that successful transformation requires more than filling vacancies. Making t+1 a success requires an appreciation of the challenges organisations are facing, the capabilities they need and the different ways specialist talent can support their ambitions.

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