T+1 National Coordination Group set up
Malta is preparing for its transition to a T+1 Securities Settlement Cycle, scheduled to be in force by no later than 11 October 2027. A national coordination group has been set up to oversee this transition, acting as the single national forum for decision-making, planning and coordination.
The group will comprise the Malta Financial Services Authority as Chair, as Malta’s National Competent Authority for CSDR supervision and the supervisor of the national CSD and regulated markets, with the Central Bank of Malta as Vice-Chair, reflecting its statutory responsibilities for payment systems and securities-settlement systems and its role in ensuring alignment with Eurosystem/T2S deliverables.
The Malta Stock Exchange is participating as the sole national CSD/SSS operator and permanent technical member.
The NCG has identified four workstreams relating to: statutory amendments and rulebook revisions, operations and market practice; systems-related, infrastructural and messaging-standard adaptation; and the intraday liquidity arrangements, collateral-management considerations and foreign-exchange booking cycles, as well as the national testing lifecycle.
The T+1 National Coordination Group said that, in alignment with the EU-level programme and the coordinated pan-European schedule, the binding obligation for in-scope transactions will remain settlement no later than T+1 as of 11 October 2027. It urged entities to prioritise early readiness to prepare their systems and processes accordingly in line with the programme plan.
As part of the process, the MFSA invited stakeholders to designate two contact points (a primary and an alternate) and to submit a brief participation statement, which would be considered for inclusion in the governance schedule. The closing date for this was mid-April.