On January 4, 2017, the SEC approved the National Securities Clearing Corporation’s (“NSCC”) proposed rule change to conform to the SEC’s proposed Rule 15c6–1(a) amendment and accommodate a second business day after the trade date (“T+2”) settlement cycle. The NSCC’s rule change consists of amendments to NSCC’s Rules & Procedures (‘‘Rules’’) in order to ensure that the Rules are consistent with the anticipated industry-wide move to a shorter standard settlement cycle for certain securities from the third business day after the trade date (‘‘T+3’’) to T+2. According to the release, the technical rule changes will help support the NSCC’s prompt and accurate clearance and settlement of securities transactions made by its members. The NSCC will not implement the T+2 change until it files a subsequent proposed rule change to establish an effective date.
Also on January 4, 2017, the SEC approved the NYSE Arca, Inc.’s (“NYSE”) proposed rule change to accommodate a T+2 settlement cycle and conform to the SEC’s proposed Rule 15c6–1(a) amendment. While approved, the T+3 rule will remain in effect until the NYSE announces the operative date in an Information Memo, which is expected to coincide with the SEC’s compliance date of the proposed amendment to Rule 15c6–1(a).
The SEC noted that it received no comment letters for either of the NSCC’s or the NYSE’s rule change proposals.
For additional discussions of the proposed T+2 changes, see our previous articles, here (FINRA), here (NYSE), here (SEC Rule 15c6-1(a)) and here (Structured Notes).