By Jayshree P Upadhyay
MUMBAI (Reuters) – India’s market regulator expects instant settlement of stock market trades to be implemented by October 2024, a source from the regulator told Reuters on Tuesday.
Currently trades in India are settled in “T+1” or one day after the trades are initiated. Instant settlement would ensure trades are settled immediately.
For foreign investors, the instant trade settlement would be optional and not mandatory, the source said.
To start, the regulator would implement settlement within one hour of the trade, with instant settlement coming some months later.
“By March 2024 we hope to first move towards one hour settlement cycle, since exchanges and clearing corporations say they need more time to work on the systems for instant settlement,” the source said.
India is the second country after China which operates on a short settlement cycle of one day. In most other major economies trades are settled within two days.
(Reporting by Jayshree P Upadhyay; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani, Louise Heavens and Christina Fincher)
