3 Key Takeaways from SIFMA Ops 2026

Taskize attended SIFMA Ops in Florida, and our Senior Sales Executive, Ben Pielow, has put together his 3 key takeaways from the event.

Credit: SIFMA

1. AI

Governance is clearly the key issue when it comes to AI. In regulated banking markets, AI governance is a challenge given the need to balance innovation with strict legal, operational, and ethical requirements.

A sub-text issue on AI is the ability to drive holistic use cases that promote non-fragmented processes. Today, operations and other trade processing teams use AI in a variety of ways, under very strict controls, but this can be siloed and disparate.

At SIFMA, I heard ops leaders expressing a desire for market-wide adoption of standardised processes that work across the trade lifecycle and between firms. Interoperability of tooling will be key to this.

2. From T+1 to 24x5 trading

U.S. equity markets are transitioning to a 24x5 trading model, with major exchanges and the DTCC preparing for a launch in late 2026, targeting a schedule from Sunday 9 p.m. ET to Friday 8 p.m. ET. The key updates on this front included NSCC clearing starting 24x5 on June 28, 2026, and Cboe Global Markets seeking approval for a December 2026 launch.

At SIFMA, I heard from clients and partners how this topic is perhaps the most challenging for day-to-day ops teams in trade processing, including a lack of consensus on how to approach it, potential fines, reputational damage and the risk of creating a wider not lesser gulf in firms’ abilities to process trade settlements in time.

There has been talk of ‘atomic’ settlement for some time (perhaps only realistic for tokenised assets), but this development pushes firms to the very brink of what’s physically possible with traditional markets and settlement lifecycles.

For Taskize, as per T+1, this means we are able to assist firms connect, communicate and collaborate seamlessly. Not least when many of whose teams will now need to rely on multi-jurisdictional follow-the-sun processes, in order to settle in a timely manner.

3. Digital assets and tokenisation

The final topic was one with the potential to divide opinion. Some firms actively embrace this transformation, while others are resistant. Will all assets become digital? If not, which ones won’t and why? How will firms service both digital and traditional assets to a potentially wider client base? And how long might that take?

The next few years will likely determine whether tokenised securities become mainstream, how stablecoins integrate with banking, and whether blockchain-based settlement can coexist with traditional capital market infrastructure. As all these chapters unfold, from our tech perspective, trusted communications and credible interoperability will be the cornerstone.