February 21, 2022
Dear Securities and Exchange Commission,
I am writing to you in support of the proposed amendments for the Shortening the Securities Transaction Settlement Cycle in release number S7-05-22.
As a concerned citizen, I believe that the proposed changes to shorten the settlement cycle for securities transactions is not only warranted, but absolutely critical to ensuring citizen-investor confidence in our market. The rapid increase in computer adoption in the preceding decades and the further automation of most of the financial system utilizing these computer systems has dramatically decreased the time needed to transact business. The exchange of securities is no exception.
In a report from CloudFlare1, API traffic comprises more than 50% of traffic on their network with Banking and Financial Services comprising two of the top 3 largest year-on-year growth by industry. API traffic is not simply traffic from an end-user mobile device to a server, but also largely, and increasingly, machine-to-machine communication.
In the age of trading securities from a pocket-sized device literally anywhere with a cell signal, the average US citizen expects that services are delivered immediately, including and perhaps especially broker services. There is, to my knowledge, no technological bottleneck impinging on brokers' ability to deliver nearly instantaneously. The T+1 cycle is a good start and I not only support, but strongly advocate for the SEC to require same-day delivery for securities.
Thank you,
J
1: https://blog.cloudflare.com/landscape-of-api-traffic/