Post-trade and settlement | Financial markets technology: fundamentals and operations

Concept and mechanism

Delivery versus payment links the two obligations of a transfer: final completion of one depends on final completion of the other. The concept is not merely sending two messages over one channel. An operational design should represent securities, cash, accounts, references, and observed state. The ECB presents T2S as a securities settlement platform using central bank money, with securities accounts and dedicated cash accounts under the applicable participation framework. Direct connectivity does not replace those relationships. This lesson uses the public T2S overview; it is not a connectivity manual, complete UDFS description, or authorization to operate the system.

Guided application

An instruction can be matched yet fail to settle because securities or cash are unavailable. Support should identify the observed reason and competent owner, avoiding a different invented cause merely because the state does not fit a dashboard. Partial settlement can also occur: 900 transferred and 300 pending out of 1200 units require preserving both amounts. Marking everything successful hides the remainder; marking everything failed ignores actual movement. Recreating the full instruction can duplicate effects. Project acceptance should test settled portions, remainders, confirmation correlation, and tracking through resolution. Authorization for funding or financial changes belongs to the defined role, not the operator who merely detects the failure.

IN PRACTICE

Example: 1800 of 2400 securities settled represents 75%, but the interface also needs references and the reason for the 600 pending units.

Common pitfalls

Matching treated as settlement; percentage treated as complete state; connectivity treated as financial account; full resubmission after partial outcome.

Related topics: Trade lifecycle and responsibilities · Reference and market data · FIX sessions and order state

Take this idea with you

Model each obligation and preserve the remainder until proven resolution.

Create account

Reference: What is T2S? · DR financial markets technology professional assessment2026.10