Post-trade innovation of the year 2026: FIS
FIS has been named Post-trade Innovation of the Year 2026 for developing technology that addresses a fundamental challenge in global securities markets: most post-trade processing still relies on mainframe systems and overnight batch cycles designed decades ago.
The scale of the challenge
The scale of the challenge is substantial. US capital markets alone are valued at over $100 trillion, comprising approximately $49 trillion in equity and $55 trillion in fixed income, representing about 40 percent of global markets. Much of this volume still settles on technology built for a slower era, with legacy mainframe batch processing systems running overnight jobs within four-hour settlement windows.
The pressure to modernize intensified in May 2024 when US securities markets moved to a T+1 settlement cycle for equities, corporate bonds, municipal bonds and unit investment trusts, compressing the previous T+2 timeline that had been standard since September 2017. This accelerated schedule placed additional strain on aging infrastructure.
Cloud-based solution
FIS responded by building its Post Trade Processing Platform on Amazon Web Services cloud infrastructure. The system can process over 100 million transactions daily and supports multiple asset classes, currencies and entities within a single integrated environment. This architecture directly addresses the fragmentation that characterizes most post-trade operations, where separate systems handle equities, fixed income and digital assets.
The platform supports equities, funds, fixed income, money markets, foreign exchange, commodities, listed and over-the-counter derivatives, and tokenized assets. By consolidating these asset classes onto one system, FIS eliminated the silos that traditionally required separate technology stacks and operational teams.
Real-time clearing
In March 2024, FIS extended this approach by launching its CD Prediction Clearing platform, which provides round-the-clock real-time post-trade clearing for regulated prediction markets. The solution replaced fragmented, batch-based processes with continuous processing, demonstrating the practical application of moving from end-of-day settlement windows to always-on operations.
The company's scale underscores the significance of the innovation. FIS facilitates the movement of approximately $9 trillion through the processing of about 75 billion transactions annually, serving more than 20,000 clients globally. The modernization of systems handling this volume represents a material shift in market infrastructure.
Industry recognition
Industry recognition has followed the technical achievement. In June 2026, FIS won Best Back-Office Platform for its Post Trade Processing Platform at the WatersTechnology Asia Awards, marking the company's third consecutive year of recognition from that program.
The shift from mainframe batch processing to cloud-native real-time systems addresses a structural problem in capital markets. Legacy systems assumed overnight processing windows and sequential workflows. Modern markets require intraday risk management, continuous liquidity monitoring and exception handling that cannot wait for batch cycles to complete.
By moving core settlement infrastructure to the cloud and enabling real-time processing across asset classes, FIS has delivered a solution that aligns technology capabilities with current market demands and regulatory requirements.
