The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC), the central organization responsible for clearing US equity trades, is building phased systems to move its clearing, settlement and risk-management operations onto the public cloud with support from Amazon Web Services (AWS). The firm has set a target to complete the core migration by the end of the decade, Chief Information Officer Lynn Bishop said in an interview.
DTCC is designing cloud-based infrastructure with an emphasis on operational resiliency - a priority Bishop highlighted when explaining the rationale for the shift. "Resiliency is very much a driver for us - the ability to design the infrastructure for the future of markets, leveraging the cloud," she said, adding that the aim is to create systems that are more "flexible, nimble and adaptable, with architecture that can scale."
The planned migration will be phased rather than a single cutover. DTCC previously moved some non-core systems to AWS over a period of more than a decade, and the current program extends that relationship to encompass core clearing and settlement tools.
Regulatory clearance has played a role in enabling the transition. Last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a no-objection letter permitting DTCC to host a subset of its clearing and settlement systems on the public cloud, a step that the firm has taken into account as it plans the broader program.
The cloud migration is unfolding alongside other operational changes at DTCC. The company is preparing to expand clearing hours to respond to growing interest in trading, and DTCC executives view the modernization and cloud strategy as complementary to that expansion. Bishop said the efforts position the organization to handle extended hours and related changes in market activity.
In parallel with the AWS work, DTCC has also expanded its existing partnership with Microsoft. Microsoft is contributing infrastructure specifically for DTCC’s crypto-focused operations under DTCC Digital Assets, reflecting a multi-cloud partnership approach for different parts of the business.
DTCC’s program follows a broader industry trend of moving trading infrastructure and other financial applications toward cloud platforms. The firm’s phased approach, regulatory coordination and concurrent partnerships with major cloud providers frame a multi-year modernization effort intended to enhance resilience, scalability and adaptability for market infrastructure.