KPMG conducted an informal survey of over 100 members at the recent ICI General Membership Meeting, about their firms' readiness for T+1, or one day settlement. The results showed a large percentage to be relatively unprepared for a near-term implementation of T+1.

With many markets considering a move to reduced settlement periods, it appears that T+1 will happen, it's simply a question of when. Given this compression in the trading process, KPMG posed the following questions to conference attendees:

1. What areas of your organization are in need of assistance to be T+1 compliant?

Technology/systems -- 50%

Administrative back office -- 40%

Portfolio management -- 17%

Trading desk -- 12%

Undecided -- 18%

2. How prepared do you feel your your organization is to move to T+1 for domestic trades?

Fully prepared -- 47%

Months behind -- 29%

Unprepared -- 17%

Undecided -- 7%

3. How prepared do you feel your your organization is to move to T+1 for cross-border trades?

Fully prepared -- 28%

Months behind -- 38%

Unprepared -- 24%

Undecided -- 10%

4. What kind of impact do you think T+1 will have on your organization?

Serious impact -- 31%

Some impact -- 49%

No impact -- 20%

"As Archimedes once said, give me a lever large enough and I can move the world. T+1 will definitely change the way the financial world will do business in the future," said C. Steven Crosby, partner with KPMG's Investment Industry Group. "It will impact products, processes and technology. Every firm needs to incorporate the impact of reduced settlement cycles and expanding cross border trades into their near term tactical and long range strategic planning."

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