The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), a global enabler of post-trade market infrastructure, has joined forces with fintech firm SSImple to enable custodians to automatically deliver fully validated standing settlement instructions (SSIs) into its flagship ALERT platform. This partnership marks a significant step toward reducing operational friction and settlement failures ahead of Europe’s transition to a T+1 settlement cycle.
Standing settlement instructions outline the precise account details and procedures for processing trades once they are executed. Inaccurate or incomplete SSIs remain a leading cause of trade failures, creating unnecessary risk and delays across global markets.
The Financial Markets Standards Board (FMSB) has long advocated for full automation of these instructions under its Core Principle 1, urging the industry to eliminate manual processes by the end of 2026 to bolster data integrity and overall market resilience.
The new collaboration integrates DTCC’s ALERT—the industry’s largest and most authoritative SSI database—with SSImple’s SSI Comply solution.
Designed specifically for custodians, SSI Comply establishes a single, authoritative source of truth for settlement data.
It performs rigorous validation and normalization before transmitting clean, error-free instructions through a secure, managed channel directly into ALERT.
This automated workflow removes the burden of manual data entry, minimizes discrepancies, and ensures real-time accuracy.“
As European markets gear up for faster T+1 settlement, automating SSIs has become essential rather than elective,” remarked Val Wotton, Managing Director and Global Head of Equities Solutions at DTCC.
The initiative, she noted, empowers custodians to bypass manual hurdles, deliver higher-quality data into ALERT, and reinforce standardization. In an environment of accelerating settlement cycles, such enhancements are critical for building operational resilience and reducing systemic risk.
Bill Meenaghan, CEO of SSImple, highlighted the practical challenges custodians have faced historically when feeding reliable data into central repositories.
“Our platform handles the heavy lifting—transforming, normalizing, and validating SSI information—so custodians can push accurate records into ALERT instantly,” he explained.
The partnership with DTCC allows steady adoption without requiring extensive internal technology overhauls, enabling the broader industry to capitalize on ALERT’s strengths for greater efficiency and consistency as T+1 approaches.
With settlement windows shrinking worldwide, the pressure on post-trade processes has never been greater.
By shifting from fragmented manual workarounds to scalable, automated SSI management, DTCC and SSImple are helping market participants strengthen data governance today.
The result is expected to yield safer, more reliable settlement flows and smoother navigation through Europe’s impending T+1 implementation.
This strategic alliance underscores a broader industry push toward digital standardization and risk mitigation in post-trade operations.
As custodians and other participants integrate these capabilities, the financial ecosystem stands to gain more transparency, reduced costs, and improved readiness for faster, more demanding settlement standards. DTCC continues to play a key role in modernizing global market infrastructure, supporting institutions across asset classes with centralized, resilient solutions.