With the U.S. securities industry planning a move to shorter settlement cycles by the third quarter of 2017, the Canadian Capital Markets Association (CCMA) is launching an initiative to tackle the issue for Canadian markets.

The CCMA announced that it is launching a steering committee to “identify, analyze and recommend ways to meet the challenges and opportunities facing Canadian and international capital markets,” as the U.S. aims to move to so-called T+2 settlement (trade date plus two days) in 2017.

Given that plan, the CCMA says that “the need for industry-wide co-ordination is again paramount, with Canada committed to meeting the same target and timeline.”

The association indicates that the committee will pursue a smooth transition to T+2 by co-ordinating the process, securing agreement on industry standards, recommending required rule changes and arraying testing, among other things.

The group — which will be co-chaired by Keith Evans, executive director of the CCMA, and Jason O’Born, director of equity operations at RBC Capital Markets — will be holding its first meeting on Oct. 15 and will meet at least monthly after that.

The committee will initiate several working groups to deal with certain aspects of the effort, including a legal and regulatory working group to be co-chaired by Jamie Anderson, general counsel and corporate secretary at the Canadian Securities Exchange; a communication and education group; and an operational working group, which will be co-chaired by Domenic Sgambelluri, vice president of global custody operations at Northern Trust.

The move follows the publication of a letter last week from U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairwoman Mary Jo White expressing support for the move to T+2 over the next couple of years — and committing to considering the necessary regulatory changes to allow the industry to meet its planned deadline.

“The most significant regulatory changes would be amendments to the various rules of the self-regulatory organizations (SROs) that specifically mandate a three-day settlement cycle or that are keyed to the settlement date and require pre-settlement actions,” White noted in the letter, adding that she has ordered SEC staff to work closely with the SROs to develop detailed schedules to consider the necessary rule amendments and to finalize these schedules by Oct. 31.

“Shortening the time it takes to settle a trade will help improve the overall efficiency of securities markets, align the United States with other global markets and promote financial stability,” says Kenneth Bentsen, Jr., president and CEO of the U.S. Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), in a statement published on Monday. “We appreciate chair[woman] White’s leadership and support for this initiative and look forward to working with the Securities and Exchange Commission and other market participants to achieve this important goal of a two-day settlement cycle.”