To determine the ultimate eligibility of a dividend or distribution, the record date, not the ex-date, is relevant. Each shareholder entered in the shareholders' register at the record date is entitled to a dividend. Usually, the person owning the stock at the end of the trading day one business day before the ex-date is also the person registered in the shareholders register on the record date, because companies set the ex-date and record date of the dividend in line with the settlement cycle of the security. Most developed financial markets such as the USA, UK, Germany, France, etc. use a settlement cycle of T+2 for stocks. As a result, companies in these markets set the ex-date one day before the record date of the dividend (example: ex-date Wednesday, record date Thursday: a security purchased on Tuesday will settle on Thursday; a person who bought the security on Tuesday bought one day before the ex-date and will be registered as shareholder on Thursday and hence be entitled to the dividend).