It is well-known that the residual I T of a leftcontinuous t-norm T satisfies the exchange principle (EP), viz.,However, the left-continuity of T is only sufficient and not necessary, as many examples in the literature illustrate. In this work we study the necessary conditions on a t-norm T for its residual to satisfy (EP). The work presents a complete characterization of the class of t-norms whose residuals satisfy (EP).