Securities Services Evolution 2025

After years of groundwork, the global post-trade industry looks set for a period of transformation in speed, resilience and cost of trade processing on an international scale.

 This year’s paper comes at a unique juncture. The workload behind settlement acceleration is at a historical high. 76% of this year’s survey respondents are working on T+1 in 2025, with North America’s T+1 transitions in the rear-view and Europe’s looming. At the same time, digitalized markets that leverage technologies such as Distributed Ledger (DLT) and Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) are on the verge of delivering significant and practical benefits in the coming months, with digital asset turnover expected to reach 10% of global totals by 2030. 

 In 2025, we see a sharp and growing focus on a core set of five highly impactful changes across the post-trade landscape. Based on our survey, 85% of respondents across the world see accelerated settlements, digital assets, asset servicing, settlement efficiency and shareholder participation as most impactful (to their business) in 2025. Over the last five years, these core activities have grown to dominate the operating agenda for firms in every region at the exclusion of regional or less urgent changes (notably including Mandatory Clearing of US Treasuries for now).

Wherever you are located in the world, your post-trade change agenda is now very much aligned with your global peers. 

Notable key findings

	The lasting impact and cumulative load of T+1: 76% of respondents are running T+1 projects in 2025, with 48% are still focused on US T+1 related projects.
	The top key enabler to a smooth UK & EU T+1 transition is automation with 43% and 38% of respondents respectively citing improved internal operation processes as a top enabler.
	10% of market turnover is expected to be conducted using digital assets and tokenized securities by 2030 with growth expectations the highest (14%) in North America.
	Usage of stablecoins is expected to have the fastest growth (10%) by 2030. This is followed very closely by crypto-currency at 6%.
	86% of firms are running Generative AI pilots in 2025, but only 57% in post-trade.