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The Future of Post-Trade
Custody and Settlement in an Always-On World
Article • September 09, 2025
Citi GPS
The Future of Post-Trade: Custody and Settlement in an Always-On World
Download hereThe world of finance is moving at an unprecedented pace. The post-trade and custody ecosystem is no exception, with asset servicing rapidly moving towards real-time and a 24 x 7 future.
This Citi GPS report examines what a real-time and “always-on” post-trade world looks like, shaped by accelerating technological advances, evolving customer expectations and geopolitics.
The industry is poised for broad transformation across settlement and transaction speed, automation and operational efficiency, the use of GenAI, and adoption of digital assets.
The transition to a 24x7 real-time post-trade operation presents challenges and opportunities, and it will be crucial to balance speed with asset safety, security, and compliance.
Key Takeaways
| 1 | Post-trade industry changes are concentrated in major themes: accelerated settlements (T+1), adoption of digital assets, automation of asset servicing and settlement efficiency. There is much greater consensus around these topics today: 80% of our 2025 survey respondents versus only 53% in 2023. |
| 2 | Settlement cycles are compressing. 40% of global securities turnover is already on T+1 or shorter (e.g. U.S., China) with more markets transitioning towards shorter cycles in the next few years. Over 40% of survey respondents – the leading category by far – highlighted accelerated settlements as the single biggest driver of change in the post-trade space. |
| 3 | Adoption of digital assets is the second great change underway in the post-trade industry. 82% of our 2025 survey respondents note distributed ledger technology (DLT) and digital assets could change the market structure versus 72% in 2024. |
| 4 | Generative AI adoption in post-trade lags wider enterprise adoption with only one-fourth of the respondents reporting live generative AI projects in the post-trade ecosystem. There is a material post-trade opportunity to convert information asymmetry into cross-asset, cross-market, and cross-jurisdiction insights for clients. |
| 5 | The next wave of post-trade transformation will be driven less by a single technology and more by new business models and market structures, especially digitally native platforms and fintech partnerships. The degree to which platformification will deliver success hinges on interoperability, greater legal and regulatory harmonization, and governance of these new rails. |
| 6 | Geopolitical uncertainty is a constant underlying factor in the internationalized nature of post-trade activities – but events of the post few years has increased the focus on the topic. Institutional clients need large global networks that have “boots on the ground”, with local market intelligence and legal structures to navigate the heightened uncertainty. |
