Results from the second EU T+1 Industry Committee Readiness Survey, conducted by The ValueExchange and presented at a dedicated industry event in Paris on 3 July 2026, show that engagement across the market has continued to build.
More than 1,000 responses were gathered across the industry ecosystem for this second edition, spanning fund dealing, trading, clearing, FX, middle office, settlement and securities financing activities, a further increase in the number of participants compared with the first survey, conducted in December 2025. The results provide a timely snapshot of the industry's state of preparedness and the progress made in the last six months. The overall conclusion is that firms are advancing, but at different speeds, and dependencies between market participants have become the central concern, ahead of automation.
Engagement continues to climb, but implementation is progressing unevenly
Awareness of the transition continues to spread. 83% of firms now report having read both the T+1 Roadmap and the T+1 Handbook, up from 77% at the time of the first survey, a further sign that the foundational documentation has reached most of its intended audience.
The proportion of firms with a formal implementation plan in place has also risen sharply. Only 2% of respondents now report having no plan at all, down from 14% in the fourth quarter of 2025, and 58% say they are already implementing their plans, roughly double the level recorded at the end of last year.
However, this advance is uneven across the market. CCPs, exchanges/MTFs and CSDs are furthest along, while asset owners, pension funds, wealth managers and smaller firms are, in many cases, still pushing their target completion into the first quarter of 2027. Firms that put a formal implementation plan in place later will, by definition, have less time left for testing and client outreach than those that did so earlier. A regional divergence is also apparent, with Western Europe showing higher levels of readiness than Eastern and Central Europe. This matters: firms that fall behind on planning risk jeopardising the wider testing phase and, ultimately, the transition itself.
Dependencies are now the concern
Success of this transition depends on coordination across the entire value chain, from FMIs and regulators to custodians and smaller market participants alike.
One of the more striking shifts between the two surveys concerns where firms see the greatest risk. 64% now cite dependency on the readiness of counterparties, vendors and other market participants as a core challenge, up six percentage points since the previous survey, and now ahead of automation as the leading concern.
Automation nonetheless remains a core issue as progress in this area is real but partial. It is still cited as a challenge by close to three-quarters of market participants.
The dependencies concern is particularly visible among settlement intermediaries and brokers. Only 40% of settlement intermediaries report high confidence in their clients' readiness, and just 25% of brokers say they are confident in their clients' or counterparts' preparations.
The key takeaway from this is clear: no single firm can be ready in isolation, and one weak link in the chain creates pressure across the entire ecosystem. In light of this, Euronext's T+1 programme maintains an active dialogue with its external stakeholders throughout the process, to keep all parties aligned and moving forward together.
Encouraging results to be confirmed in the phases ahead
Over 90% of firms surveyed say they expect to meet the new operational timetable requirements in time for go-live, which is a positive signal. The upcoming industry testing phase, beginning in 2027, will be the real test of whether the market can operate simultaneously across the full value chain, and coordinated, end-to-end testing now stands as the next critical milestone on the road to T+1 settlement.
As the Industry Committee's work continues, the message from this second survey is consistent with the first: the direction of travel is right, and the European market is, on several measures, ahead of where the United States stood at the same point in its own transition. What remains is to close the gap between the most and least prepared participants before end-to-end testing begins.
To help firms do so, the Industry Committee has developed tools that allow market participants to advance their own readiness and map where they depend on others, ahead of the 2027 testing phase. A third readiness survey is already planned for the end of 2026, which will offer a further checkpoint on the industry's progress.
Euronext supports this collective effort, with a clear focus on ensuring that, at this stage of the journey, the market remains collectively on track and that no one is quietly falling behind.
Thomas Metier, Programme executive for the T+1 settlement migration, notes:
The good news is that from our conversations in industry task forces, with local working groups, and with client engagements, everyone is moving. The risk is not lack of intention. The risk is underestimating how much collective, coordinated effort the last mile requires.