Settlement of trades involves making sure that the securities are transferred from the prior owner to the new owner and that the corresponding funds for the trade also change hands. In the old days, this was a laborious manual process that had to be done by hand or rudimentary computing devices. Moreover, a buyer of stocks may have to send a paper check to their broker to pay for the trade. Today, with electronic trading and online brokerages, settlement takes place much quicker and with far fewer errors.