21 February 2025 ICMA welcomes the opportunity to respond to the IOSCO Consultation Report on Pre-hedging.The response is provided by ICMA’s Pre-Hedging Working Group, which comprises sell-side, buy-side and market infrastructure provider members of ICMA’s Secondary Market Practices Committee (SMPC), and solely in the context of international, secondary bond markets.Key points: ICMA members are of the view that existing code and guidance, such as the FX Global Code (2021, last updated 2024), and specifically the FMSB Standard for the execution of Large Trades in FICC markets (“FMSB Standard”, 2021) and FMSB Pre-hedging: case studies Spotlight Review (“FMSB Spotlight Review”, 2024) are sufficient for the markets they cover and that any further recommendations from IOSCO should be aligned with those existing codes and practices. Furthermore, ICMA members believe that no further prescriptive rules should be introduced as a result of any future IOSCO recommendations. Given the diverse nature of market dynamics and liquidity, asset classes, execution methods and investor sophistication around the globe, we believe IOSCO should provide high-level principles only and allow firms to tailor their internal procedures accordingly. Principle based recommendations will also make it easier to implement/consider across asset classes (e.g. equity v OTC markets) which are structurally different markets. Firms and other market participants should ensure that existing codes and guidance are applied consistently. In this context, and as highlighted throughout our response to this consultation, ICMA members would like to refer specifically to the principles and examples under the FMSB Standard and FMSB Spotlight Review. Further and more specific thoughts are provided in our response to the Consultation report With respect to the differentiation between execution channels, ICMA members would like to highlight that there should not be any bifurcation or unlevel treatment between OTC and electronic trading, referring also to the long-established principle of technology neutrality in regulatory action according to which, different media and channels should be treated equivalently. Further thoughts and detailed comments on the consultation questions can be found in ICMA’s response.

20 February 2025 The International Capital Market Association (ICMA) welcomes the decision by the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) to expand its initiative to settle transactions recorded on distributed ledger technology (DLT) in central bank money.Read the full press release on the ECB’s website.ICMA and its DLT Bonds Working Group have consistently highlighted the critical importance of a wholesale CBDC (or DLT-based real central bank money settlement solution) and have long advocated for it, as a way of realising the benefits and fostering the market development of DLT-based securities.We believe the benefits include: Next level automation through programmability, reducing costs and fragmentation. More efficient securities settlement and post-trade processing, reducing settlement fails and risk. Increasing the attractiveness of capital markets and facilitating the funding for the real economy. Future proofing and maintaining control of the currency in light of the proliferation of ‘stablecoins’. We are pleased to see that the ECB’s announcement addresses our members’ key considerations. Collaboration with the industry, notably on harmonisation and standardisation, remains of paramount importance to avoid market fragmentation, and we look forward to engaging further with the Eurosystem and all relevant stakeholders.Further information on ICMA’s DLT Bonds Working Group as well as guidance on tokenisation and DLT-based debt securities can be found here.

12 February 2025 ICMA has today provided its views on ESMA's MiFIR Review Final Report on RTS2 via letter to the European Commission and ESMA.View the letter.

10 February 2025 ICMA is delighted to announce the successful recipients of our 2025 scholarship programme from Africa, Asia and Latin America.These 15 individuals were selected from a record number of applicants, based on their professional experience and aspirations, academic attainments and a personal statement reflecting their desire to embark on their chosen course of study. The students will have the opportunity to acquire an ICMA Diploma in either debt capital markets, securities & derivatives or financial market operations, starting next month.The ICMA scholarship programme has now been running for four years and represents an important element of ICMA's mission to raise standards and support inclusion in global capital markets.We’d like to thank everyone that took the time and effort to apply for this programme and convey our warmest congratulations to the successful recipients  Aynalem Kasa AlemuEthiopia Hailegebrel Girma BeyeneZambia Mark Jason V. CelizPhilippines Providence ChikarakaraZimbabwe Camila FloresEcuador Rahimat IbrahimNigeria Khamidulla KholikovUzbekistan Paballo Phillicious LedwabaSouth Africa Kelvin Mbugua NyamburaKenya Christopher Y NgonyaniTanzania Tien Manh PhamVietnam Evangelyn Nana Ama Duaba QuarmGhana Vikram Jeet SinghIndia Aminat Oluwabukola TijaniNigeria Nyamdulam YondonMongolia View the list of recipents of the 2024 scholarship programme.View the list of recipents of the 2023 scholarship programme.View the list of recipents of the 2022 scholarship programme.View the list of recipients of the 2021 scholarship programme.

6 February 2025 We are pleased to announce the 20 individuals that were successfully elected to form the new ERCC Committee. The term of office of the Committee will be approximately one year starting immediately and ending on the day the results of the 2026 ERCC elections are announced.ICMA ERCC Committee 2025 – 2026Charlie BadranAXA Investment Managers GS LtdThomas HansenBanco Santander S.A.Michel SemaanBanque Centrale de Compensation (LCH SA)Nick DauntBarclays Capital Securities LimitedEmma CooperBlackRock Investment Management (UK) LimitedEugene McGroryBNP ParibasJames CherryClearstream Banking, S.A.Andreas BiewaldCommerzbank AktiengesellschaftAmanda ButavandCredit Agricole CIBFrank GastEurex Repo GmbHMarije VerhelstEuroclear Bank S.A./N.V.Ned TaylorHSBC Bank plcPhilip BoyceJ.P. Morgan Securities plcHamish ThorntonLloyds Banking Corporate MarketsDaniel BremerMerrill Lynch InternationalAnja KleefsmanPGGM Vermogensbeheer B.V.Sylvain BojicSociété Générale S.A.Nicola DaneseTradeweb Europe LimitedGareth AllenUBS AGArne TheiaUniCredit Bank AG

5 February 2025 The International Capital Market Association (ICMA) has published a new paper providing key recommendations for simplifying EU sustainable finance legislation to enhance usability and effectiveness.With an omnibus legislative proposal expected by February 2025, the paper highlights the need for a simplified, proportionate and internationally operable regulatory framework.Key recommendations include fundamentally addressing the usability challenges of the EU Taxonomy and its implementation, refocusing the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) data requirements, and streamlining reporting under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) while maintaining its flexible definition to sustainable investments.We also underline the importance of the logical sequencing of reforms,  as well as the related need for interim requirements or suspended enforcement notably for reporting.These recommendations reflect extensive engagement with policymakers and industry stakeholders, as well as input from ICMA committees and members, ensuring a balanced, informed, and practical approach that maintains policy and regulatory integrity while reducing excessive complexity.The full paper is available here.

31 January 2025 On behalf of the ICMA European Repo and Collateral Council, ICMA has responded to the Bank’s Discussion Paper on Transitioning to a repo-led operating framework. The Discussion Paper outlines the Bank’s proposals for transitioning its framework for supplying central bank reserves from a supply-driven to a demand-driven, repo-led framework. This is necessary as the quantity of reserves steadily falls with the unwind of quantitative easing and term funding schemes. It seeks feedback from market participants on how they envisage new framework will operate as well as on its calibration.To formulate its response, ICMA convened a dedicated Taskforce of member firms from its European Repo and Collateral Council (ERCC) that are active in the sterling repo market and regular users of the Sterling Monetary Framework (“SMF participants”).The response highlights a number of key themes and recommendations that can be considered as broadly consensus views across SMF participants intended to support a successful transition to the new framework. Chief among these is that the SMF operations should be settled on a delivery-versus-payment (DVP) basis, along the lines of a triparty model. Participants highlight the challenges related to the existing free-of-payment (FOP) model, not least the drain on intraday liquidity arising from the requirement to pre-position collateral, and which could ultimately make it difficult to use the SMF as a business-as-usual liquidity management tool. Other recommendations include expediting the process for verifying and requesting collateral eligibility, greater flexibility in tenors for the Indexed Long-term Repo (ILTR), enhanced operational efficiencies related to partialing, substitution, and margining, as well as improvements to the Short Term Repo (STR) tender process.

30 January 2025 ICMA has responded to the FCA's consultation on current and future uses of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in UK financial services, as well as the financial services regulatory framework.View the response

29 January 2024 ICMA's European Repo and Collateral Committee (ERCC) has published its annual analysis of how the repo market performed over the recent year-end: The European repo market at 2024 year-end.Calendar year-end has become a major focal point for repo markets, associated with thin liquidity and heightened rate volatility, and working with its European Repo and Collateral Council (ERCC), ICMA has conducted its assessment of market performance over this period since 2016. The legacy of this particularly stressed turn is still felt today in terms of how and when market participants manage their anticipated year-end funding needs. The report looks not only at the Euro government repo market, but also those for GBP, USD, and JPY. The latest report describes how 2024 year-end was, in many respects, different to previous year-ends. As usual, focus on the so-called “turn” began in October, with term and forward trades beginning to price in liquidity premium for December 31 to January 2 (a two-day turn). Unlike recent years, particularly in the case of EUR, the markets began pricing repo rates at a significant premium to benchmark rates, rather than the usual deep discount. This was observed over the September quarter-end, when repo rates spiked higher, and was largely seen as a return to normalisation, with reduced excess liquidity and increased bond issuance tilting the demand-supply dynamic. At the same time, there was growing concern about the increased pressure on the largest G-SIB banks as a result of the soaring stock market, particularly following the November US election result, which was increasing the demand for prime brokerage balance sheet to fund swelling hedge fund longs, and likely to be at the expense of repo funding capacity for fixed income. However, as we moved into December the pressure began to abate, and rates began to move closer to normal levels. This was partly as many firms had already locked in much of their year-end funding, but also as it became clearer that there was ample liquidity in the market. A number of other factors helped, including a change in market position in government bond markets, as well as the sell-off in the equity markets following the December FOMC. While much of the discourse over recent years has been on demand-supply imbalances in the repo market at year-end, with the banking system flooded with excess reserves and the market facing collateral scarcity, as ICMA’s annual analysis has shown, the main driver of the year-end effect is in fact balance sheet scarcity; which is much more difficult to predict.

22 January 2025 Today the European Securities and Markets Authorities (ESMA) hosted the T+1 Governance Launch Meeting to present the arrangements for driving the move to the reduction of default settlement cycles to T+1 for EU securities markets. The reduction of the settlement cycle for securities transactions can help reduce counterparty credit risks, improve market efficiency, and address issues arising from the current lack of alignment between the settlement cycles of Europe and other major global markets, which creates costs and inefficiencies for investors, issuers, intermediaries, and market infrastructures. Aware of the benefits and costs that this transition entails, members of the Industry Committee have welcomed the ESMA report, which identified a pathway and also suggested a date for the transition to the T+1 settlement cycle. In line with the recommendations of that report, and in coordination with the public authorities, the industry has established an appropriate governance framework to guide the transition process with the aim of moving to T+1 in a manner and timing also coordinated with the UK and Swiss markets. At the meeting on January 22 organised by ESMA, the independent chair of the T+1 Industry Committee, Giovanni Sabatini, presented the Terms of Reference for the T+1 Industry Committee, the committee's composition, and the organisation of work across the various identified Technical Workstreams, along with an initial draft of the work plan. The principles underpinning the composition of the committee and its activities are representativeness, inclusivity, transparency, consensus-seeking, and efficiency. In this regard, the committee's work may build upon the work already completed by the European industry in the October 2024 report, as well as the ESMA report and the UK recommendations, US Playbook, and upcoming Swiss report, when relevant. The Chair of the Industry Committee, Giovanni Sabatini, commented: 'The T+1 project is a collective effort of the financial industry based on good faith and credibility. Establishing a robust, balanced, and inclusive governance framework is key to ensuring broad acceptance and support while avoiding overcomplexity. A coordinated move to T+1 will support the efficiency, liquidity, and competitiveness of EU financial markets. Constructive, transparent, and continuous cooperation with European Authorities will be key to ensuring the success of the project.'”See also: ESMA press release: New governance structure for transition to T+1 settlement cycle kicks off  More information on the EU T+1 Industry Committee

17 January 2025 ICMA's European Repo and Collateral Council (ERCC) submitted today a response to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) consultation on the review of RTS 22 on transaction data reporting  under Art. 26 and RTS 24 on order book data to be maintained under Art. 25 of MiFIR published on 3 October 2024.The targeted ERCC response focuses on the SFT-specific aspects of the consultation, reiterating long-standing concerns about the inclusion of certain SFTs in the scope of MiFIR transaction reporting, namely transactions with EU central banks. To ensure consistency with SFTR and address practical concerns with the applicability of the MiFIR framework to SFTs, the ERCC calls for an exclusion of all SFTs from MiFIR reporting. The consultation deadline was initially 3 January 2025 but has been extended to 17 January 2025.

15 January 2025 The latest edition of the ICMA quarterly report is now available.To access the report, click here.

14 January 2024 ICMA today submitted its comments to HMT on its draft regulation for Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) ratings providers.View the comments

13 January 2025 The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves and Chinese Vice Premier, He Lifeng concluded the 2025 UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD) in Beijing on 11 January. Established in 2008, the EFD is an important mechanism for bilateral communication and policy coordination on strategic, long-term and overarching issues in the economic and financial fields.The work of the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) was referenced under capital markets of the EFD's policy outcomes, specifically: Both sides welcome exchanges between the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), and support Chinese issuers to issue and list RMB-denominated debt in the UK. Both sides welcome further collaboration between the People’s Bank of China and ICMA to assist in China’s adoption of ICMA’s Global Master Repurchase Agreement (GMRA), the predominant master agreement for cross-border repurchase agreement transactions. Both sides note qualified UK financial institutions can participate in bond repo via the Qualified Foreign Investor (QFI) and China Interbank Bond Market (CIBM) Direct programme. China welcomes more qualified UK institutional investors to actively participate in trading and related business in China’s interbank market. China welcomes qualified UK entities to issue bonds in China’s Interbank Bond Market (CIBM). Both sides also welcome the National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors (NAFMII) and ICMA to further deepen cooperation on green bonds, panda bonds, primary bond market practices, repo, and collateral management under the framework of their MoU. Both sides recognise the importance of people-to-people links in enhancing understanding of each other’s financial markets, stimulating dynamism, and driving innovation. Building on the success of a generation of Chinese financial leaders who have studied in the UK and those who continue to study in the UK on Chevening scholarships, both sides agree to establish a new UK-China Chevening Financial Fellowship programme, designed to facilitate senior executive learning and experience sharing for financial sector leaders. Both sides welcome the collaboration on capital markets training and capacity-building for Corporate Finance Consultants (CFC) provided by ICMA. More information on the 2025 UK - China EFD is available on https://lnkd.in/eaNcnQPwView the Outcomes Document

10 January 2025 Today, ICMA responded to the FCA Discussion Paper “The Future of the SI regime” under Chapter 9 of the FCA’s Policy Statement for Improving transparency for bond and derivatives markets PS 24/14. The response was provided by ICMA’s MiFID Working Group.View the response