Leveraging AI and Automation to Cope with the Settlement Cycle Compression

Capital markets operations are being reshaped from the ground up as settlement cycles compress, digital assets go mainstream, and the sheer volume of assets under management outpaces what firms can service in-house. With North America already live on T+1 and Europe, the UK, and Switzerland preparing for a 2027 transition, firms have little room left to affirm, match, fund, and settle trades, pushing post-trade processing away from manual, head count-based models and toward AI-governed, rules-based straight-through processing. This shift is compounded by markets moving toward continuous, always-on trading and tokenized settlement rails, alongside an explosion in private fund assets and a generational handoff of wealth to digital-first investors, each adding new layers of servicing complexity that traditional operating models were never built to absorb.

Both state of the market and supply-side trends are covered in Avasant’s Capital Markets Business Process Transformation 2026 Market Insights™ and Capital Markets Business Process Transformation 2026 RadarView™, respectively. These reports present a comprehensive study of the capital markets services industry and closely examine the market leaders, innovators, disruptors, challengers, and tech pioneers. They also provide a view into key market trends and developments impacting the capital markets services space.

Avasant evaluated over 45 service providers across two dimensions: practice maturity and future-proofing. Of the 45 providers, we recognized 18 that brought the most value to the market over the past 12 months.

The report recognizes service providers in five categories:

• • Leaders: Accenture, Cognizant, eClerx, Infosys, and TCS
  • Innovators: Broadridge, Capgemini, Genpact, and Wipro
  • Disruptors: Coforge, HCLTech, and Mphasis
  • Challengers: Acuity Analytics, Delta Capita, and DXC Technology
  • Tech pioneers: Avaloq, Murex, and SS&C Technologies

Figure 1 below from the full report illustrates these categories:

“Settlement compression and the shift toward always-on, tokenized markets are pushing capital markets firms toward AI-governed, rules-based straight-through processing,” said Robert Joslin, managing partner at Avasant. “Building resilient, always-on operations should be a board-level priority, not an IT afterthought.”

The reports provide a number of findings, including the following:

• • With the US on T+1 and Europe following in 2027, the shrinking post-trade window is forcing firms to abandon manual, head count-based processing in favor of AI-governed, rules-based straight-through processing to meet compressed timelines.
  • As equity fund fees fall 60 percentage points since 2000 and index funds’ share has climbed to 52%, asset managers are outsourcing across the value chain—from fund accounting to portfolio management—to protect thinning margins.
  • With Baby Boomers holding 51.6% of US household net worth, wealth passing to digital-first heirs is fueling outsourcing in account life cycle operations, KYC, and personalized advisory services.
  • Nearly 60% of service providers’ planned investment is going toward acquisitions, reflecting a clear buy-over-build strategy to quickly gain AI-native, data, and domain capabilities.

“Providers pairing deep trade life cycle and asset-servicing domain expertise with governed agentic AI and transaction-linked pricing are pulling ahead of the pack,” said Haril Sadhu, lead analyst at Avasant. “Investing in platform-led delivery now will separate market leaders from the rest.”

This RadarView features detailed profiles of 18 service providers, along with their solutions, offerings, and experience in assisting enterprises and individuals in their capital markets services journey.

This Research Byte is a brief overview of Avasant’s Capital Markets Business Process Transformation 2026 Market Insights™ and Capital Markets Business Process Transformation 2026 RadarView™. (Click for pricing.)