Lack of market discussions on recall cutoffs a “main concern” for T+1 move, says Yared
01 June 2023 Canada
Image: sebra/stock.adobe.com
A lack of discussion between all market participants on securities lending recall cutoff times has become a main concern during the move to T+1, according to Mathilda Yared, managing director of global securities finance at National Bank of Canada.
During a discussion on the move to a shorter settlement cycle for the US and Canada at the 13th Annual Conference on Canadian Securities Lending, Yared advised borrowers and lenders to continue to communicate and collaborate to ensure they meet the May 2024 implementation deadline, while avoiding any unintended or detrimental market consequences.
For Keith Evans, executive director at the Canadian Capital Markets Association, there is a “tremendous amount of work to be done” in the upcoming move to T+1 and it has become a “much bigger challenge” for all market participants when compared with the move from T+3 to T+2.
This is due to “drastically different systems, implementations and changes that need to happen” in this shorter settlement cycle compared with the previous move to T+2”, said Ahmed Shadmann, vice president, head of agency lending trading, Toronto at State Street.
Currently, there is an impetus to modernise how the Canadian securities lending market works, Yared highlighted, especially in terms of securities lending recalls.
Yared continued: “The Canadian CDS market is still functioning on the basis of email recalls, which is very different from what happens in the US where automation has been available for quite a while.
“Another main difference between moving from T+3 to T+2, compared to moving from T+2 to T+1, is that we are questioning securities lending market practices this time around and it's causing quite a bit of confusion and noise.”
Thomas Veneziano, North American head of product at Pirum, also indicated a need for increased automation, suggesting that the recall process in Canada and international markets remain highly manual and email oriented. Consequently, he highlighted the importance of global solutions to automate the recall process across markets.
As a response to this concern, Pirum created a global recall manager solution which works across regions and is designed to have issuance, acceptance and an acknowledgment of recalls on the platform.
The solution is rules-based so that clients can configure to accept a recall that is based on certain sets of rules and guidelines per market and per counterparty, Veneziano confirmed.
Discussing his biggest concern for the move to T+1, Evans pinpointed the amount of automation required for securities lending, as well as trade lifecycle, corporate actions and foreign exchange (FX).
He reminded panellists that testing for the shorter settlement cycle in the US will begin in August 2023, with Canadians initiating test cycles in January 2024.
He added: “There’s a lot of operational considerations that we initially have to go through, I’m not sure how much time we have. We all know that the regulators are very focused on failed trades. The biggest failure of T+1 will be increased fails in the equity and the corporate debt space.”
A lack of proper infrastructure in place during the implementation could result in increased fails, Shadmann indicated. If this were to occur, Shadmann hypothesised, he would, as an agent lender “start to mitigate risk” by “ keeping buffers in stock”, which could ultimately lead to reduced liquidity in the market.
The overall solutions are probably the things that keep people up at night, affirmed Veneziano. The cut off times are moving for continuous net settlement (CNS), for affirmations and, potentially, recalls. “The market lenders and borrowers need to come to a common ground,” he urged.
Sharing his concerns, Veneziano indicated a need for market participants to think about how much lift internally is needed to achieve the required automation level and straight-through processing to operate on a more real-time basis.
Veneziano concluded: “T+1 is going to be a major challenge and it is likely to be followed by T+0. T+1 is top of mind right now and a priority that everyone is concerned about, but T+0 will come so we should start thinking about that right now.”
During a discussion on the move to a shorter settlement cycle for the US and Canada at the 13th Annual Conference on Canadian Securities Lending, Yared advised borrowers and lenders to continue to communicate and collaborate to ensure they meet the May 2024 implementation deadline, while avoiding any unintended or detrimental market consequences.
For Keith Evans, executive director at the Canadian Capital Markets Association, there is a “tremendous amount of work to be done” in the upcoming move to T+1 and it has become a “much bigger challenge” for all market participants when compared with the move from T+3 to T+2.
This is due to “drastically different systems, implementations and changes that need to happen” in this shorter settlement cycle compared with the previous move to T+2”, said Ahmed Shadmann, vice president, head of agency lending trading, Toronto at State Street.
Currently, there is an impetus to modernise how the Canadian securities lending market works, Yared highlighted, especially in terms of securities lending recalls.
Yared continued: “The Canadian CDS market is still functioning on the basis of email recalls, which is very different from what happens in the US where automation has been available for quite a while.
“Another main difference between moving from T+3 to T+2, compared to moving from T+2 to T+1, is that we are questioning securities lending market practices this time around and it's causing quite a bit of confusion and noise.”
Thomas Veneziano, North American head of product at Pirum, also indicated a need for increased automation, suggesting that the recall process in Canada and international markets remain highly manual and email oriented. Consequently, he highlighted the importance of global solutions to automate the recall process across markets.
As a response to this concern, Pirum created a global recall manager solution which works across regions and is designed to have issuance, acceptance and an acknowledgment of recalls on the platform.
The solution is rules-based so that clients can configure to accept a recall that is based on certain sets of rules and guidelines per market and per counterparty, Veneziano confirmed.
Discussing his biggest concern for the move to T+1, Evans pinpointed the amount of automation required for securities lending, as well as trade lifecycle, corporate actions and foreign exchange (FX).
He reminded panellists that testing for the shorter settlement cycle in the US will begin in August 2023, with Canadians initiating test cycles in January 2024.
He added: “There’s a lot of operational considerations that we initially have to go through, I’m not sure how much time we have. We all know that the regulators are very focused on failed trades. The biggest failure of T+1 will be increased fails in the equity and the corporate debt space.”
A lack of proper infrastructure in place during the implementation could result in increased fails, Shadmann indicated. If this were to occur, Shadmann hypothesised, he would, as an agent lender “start to mitigate risk” by “ keeping buffers in stock”, which could ultimately lead to reduced liquidity in the market.
The overall solutions are probably the things that keep people up at night, affirmed Veneziano. The cut off times are moving for continuous net settlement (CNS), for affirmations and, potentially, recalls. “The market lenders and borrowers need to come to a common ground,” he urged.
Sharing his concerns, Veneziano indicated a need for market participants to think about how much lift internally is needed to achieve the required automation level and straight-through processing to operate on a more real-time basis.
Veneziano concluded: “T+1 is going to be a major challenge and it is likely to be followed by T+0. T+1 is top of mind right now and a priority that everyone is concerned about, but T+0 will come so we should start thinking about that right now.”
NO FEE, NO RISK
100% ON RETURNS If you invest in only one securities finance news source this year, make sure it is your free subscription to Securities Finance Times
100% ON RETURNS If you invest in only one securities finance news source this year, make sure it is your free subscription to Securities Finance Times
