In a shared memory architecture, early coherency indication is used to notify a communications interface, prior to the data for a memory request is returned, and prior to updating a coherency directory in response to the memory request, that the return data can be used by the communications interface when it is received thereby from a source of the return data. By doing so, the communications interface can often begin forwarding the return data over its associated communication link with little or no latency once the data is retrieved from its source. In addition, the communications interface is often no longer required to wait for updating of the coherency directory to complete prior to forwarding the return data over the communication link. As such, the overall latency for handling the memory request is typically reduced.