The Canadian Securities Administrators is backing off its plan to move up institutional trade matching and settlement deadlines.

The CSA published the final version of proposed amendments to the ITM rules on Friday, after receiving comments in response to amendments that were published in October.

Most notably, the rules will maintain the current requirement to match so-called DAP/RAP trades by no later than noon on the business day following trade date (noon on T+1). The rules no longer propose a requirement for these trades to be matched by no later than midnight on trade date (midnight on T).

The notice indicates that most commenters on the amendments “were of the view that moving to the midnight on T deadline from the current noon on T+1 deadline was not justified from a cost-benefit perspective without a clear indication that the standard T+3 settlement cycle in North American capital markets would be shortened. Many commenters felt that there was no inherent value or benefit from requiring institutional trade matching by midnight on T compared to noon on T+1, given the standard T+3 settlement cycle.”

The regulators now agree with that position, noting that while they still encourage the industry to work towards a same-day ITM goal, “we acknowledge that a regulatory requirement to achieve this goal may no longer be appropriate at this time. Industry stakeholders appear almost unanimous in their view that it will take a compression of the settlement cycle to provide both a strong business and regulatory rationale to invest in the necessary resources and technological upgrades for moving to same-day matching.”

“As there are no plans to shorten the T+3 settlement cycle in global markets at this time, we have decided to maintain the current ITM noon on T+1 deadline,” the regulator concludes.

It is also scrapping a proposal to extend the current ITM deadline from noon on T+1 to 2 p.m. on T+1 for an interim period of two years.

“The commenters were almost unanimous in their view that such a change would require firms to incur additional costs, involve more scarce resources and be disruptive, only to have the industry revert back to noon on T+1 in two years,” the CSA says. “We acknowledge these strong views, and consequently will not implement this proposal.”

A number of other amendments will go ahead, which aim to lessen the regulatory burden, clarify certain provisions, and modify reporting requirements.

Additionally, the CSA is publishing a report of its staff’s findings of an analysis of matching data. “Our review of the data showed that since 2007, the industry has made steady progress in meeting the ITM target. However, despite these efforts many market participants have reached a significant ceiling in their ability to meet the ITM target. CSA staff will continue to monitor the industry’s progress in achieving the ITM target,” it says.

Subject to ministerial approval, the amendments will come into force on July 1 in all CSA jurisdictions.

IE