May 28 (Reuters) - The move to next-day settlement for
trading in U.S. securities on Tuesday will require
exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and the marketmakers to juggle
multiple jurisdictional requirements and capital needs, market
participants said.
U.S. trading moves to a shorter settlement on Tuesday, which
regulators hope will reduce risk and improve efficiency in the
world's largest markets, but is expected to temporarily increase
transaction failure for investors.
The biggest headache that many ETF issuers and their service
providers face is what happens when there's a "mismatch" between
when trades of the ETF wrapper -- the fund itself -- settle, and
the settlement schedule for the ETF's holdings traded outside of
the United States.
A U.S.-listed ETF will be subject to the new "T+1"
settlement rules but not all of the constituents of that fund
face the same parameters. Meanwhile, European ETF issuers will
have to wait for two days for buyers of their products to pay
but they will have only a single day to pay for new orders of
any ETF components that trade in the United States.
The primary impact will be felt by asset managers whose
funds include European holdings, since China and India already
have accelerated their settlement periods and Canada, Mexico and
Argentina also made the switch this week, said John Hooson,
managing director of ETF services at BBH.
"The majority of ETF issuers are dealing with this in some
way shape or form."
Such dislocations, he added, "will have to be solved with an
authorized provider posting additional collateral."
Authorized providers, the marketmakers who respond to ETF
orders by purchasing or selling baskets of shares, will have to
find ways to continue creating those ETF baskets in a timely and
cost-efficient manner, or see their cost of capital and need for
short-term liquidity increase.
Time zone differences may stress the settlement process
still further, said Todd Rosenbluth, head of ETF research at
VettaFi.
"That may lead to wider bid/asked spreads and reduced
liquidity as people try to address all these mismatches,"
Rosenbluth said. He added he expects this to be a short term
challenge that "will work its way through the markets over a few
weeks."
Robert Humbert, global head of ETF product at BNY Mellon
, one of the largest custodians and asset servicing firms,
said that about 30% of the order volume his company oversees
already settles on a T+1 basis, and expects that to bump up to
70% when the SEC-mandated rule change kicks in on Tuesday.
"Certainly, mismatching could be an issue for some but the
flip side is that T+1 ultimately is a more capital-efficient
process," Humbert said. Market participants "will only need to
hold capital for one day, not two."
Both Hooson and Humbert point to another area where ETF
market participants will need to adjust. Currently, marketmakers
manage their own inventories on a T+1 basis, in order to create
or redeem new ETF baskets on the old T+2 settlement cycle. The
change means those liquidity providers will now have to shift to
T+0.
Humbert, however, argues that the industry is prepared.
"We've spent the last 12 months working with ETF issuers and
their authorized participants to iron out problems," he said.
Rosenbluth agrees, noting that asset management firms "tend
to be very good at getting ahead of known and anticipated
events."