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Also known as Financial markets back office administrator · Back office administrator · Back office payments assistant · Broker assistantand 8 more
Broker clerk · Brokerage assistant · Brokerage clerk · Financial markets back office operator · Operations officer · Settlements administrator · Settlements clerk · Settlements manager
A settlements analyst makes sure that securities and cash change hands correctly and on the intended settlement date. The role instructs and matches settlement with custodians and central securities depositories, monitors pending trades, investigates and resolves fails, manages cash and securities shortfalls, handles penalties under the EU settlement discipline regime of CSDR (Central Securities Depositories Regulation) and works within the cut-off times of T2S (TARGET2-Securities) and other settlement systems.
The analyst starts with the list of trades due to settle today and those still unmatched in the depository. Unmatched trades are compared with the counterparty's instruction: one has the wrong place of settlement, another a different settlement amount. The analyst fixes the internal instruction or asks the counterparty to amend theirs. Mid-morning the focus moves to fails: a bond sale cannot settle because the securities have not arrived from a previous purchase, so the analyst works with the securities lending desk to borrow them. Cash shortfalls in one currency are flagged to treasury before the payment cut-off. After lunch the analyst reviews the daily CSDR penalty report, checks penalties charged and received, and disputes those that look wrong. Late afternoon brings the final settlement windows, with priority on large trades and client trades. The day ends with an ageing report of open fails, a handover to the next team and a note to middle office on recurring static data errors.
The EFO level names are the common scale; job titles differ between employers.
| Level | What the work looks like | Typical years | Typical job titles |
|---|---|---|---|
| L1 Starting out | Instructs and monitors settlements with defined procedures, investigates simple unmatched trades and fails, applies cut-off times and learns markets, depositories and systems under supervision. | 0-2 | Banks: Analyst, Junior Analyst, Associate (asset servicing), Trainee, GraduateAsset servicers: Junior, Specialist (entry), Officer |
| L2 Independent | Owns settlements for a market or product end to end, resolves complex fails with counterparties and custodians, manages penalties and trains L1 analysts. | 2-5 | Banks: Analyst / Senior Analyst, AssociateAsset servicers: Specialist, Senior Specialist, Senior Officer |
| L3 Senior or specialist | Specialist in markets, depositories or settlement change such as shorter settlement cycles, handles major exceptions and represents settlements in audits and projects. | 5-9 | Banks: Senior Associate, AVP, Assistant ManagerAsset servicers: Senior Specialist, Expert, Team Lead (small team) |
| L4 Leads a team or an area | Manages a settlements team, owns fail, penalty and ageing controls, service levels and key risk indicators, and is the escalation point for desks, clients and custodians. | 8-14 | Banks: VP, Manager, Senior ManagerAsset servicers: Team Lead, Manager, Head of Section |
| L5 Leads the function | Head of settlements for a legal entity or region, sets the operating model and control standards, and represents the function with market infrastructures, business and risk leadership. | 12+ | Banks: Director, Executive Director, Managing Director, Head of functionAsset servicers: Head of Department, Director |
Specialisations share most of the role and differ in the skills listed here.
Also known as Back office administrator · Back office payments assistant · Broker assistant · Broker clerk
Critical skills: Settlement and fails management, Trade lifecycle, Corporate actions processing
Each role lists its skills with a tier and a weight. The weights of one role add up to 100 percent.
Source: the EFO role catalogue, built from the ESCO classification and reviewed by the editors.
The percentage is the skill's share of the role; the bars are drawn relative to the anchor skill, which is shown full.
The work the role takes part in.
Straight-through processing settles most trades without manual work, and machine learning now predicts which trades are likely to fail so teams can act early.
Straight-through processing settles most trades without manual work, and machine learning now predicts which trades are likely to fail so teams can act early. Manual matching and chasing are shrinking. The planned EU move to a one-day settlement cycle (T+1) compresses the time for fixing errors and favours automation and early intervention. Value grows in fail prevention, root cause fixes, market knowledge and managing exceptions under time pressure. The World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report 2025 lists technological literacy and analytical thinking among the skills growing fastest.
The L3 salary range for this role, with its sources, will appear here when the salaries section opens.
Roles that need many of the same skills, by weighted skill overlap, with the skills you would need to add.
91% skill overlap
To add: Corporate governance
79% skill overlap
To add: Custody and asset servicing, Investment book of record and portfolio data
79% skill overlap
To add: Derivatives and how they work
76% skill overlap
To add: Derivatives and how they work
76% skill overlap
To add: Derivatives and how they work
72% skill overlap
To add: Derivatives and how they work, Securities financing (repo and securities lending)