The ICMA FinTech and Digitalisation team agreed a number of priorities with the Board in March this year and much progress has been made against all of these. We have actively engaged with our broad range of market stakeholders (with our working groups including over 330 individuals from 122 member firms).
Market innovation and the evolution of the new ‘digital world’ of tokenised securities, which are coming to life alongside the traditional operation of the international bond markets, has continued this year. We have been actively supporting and monitoring this evolution. Engagement has increased in the regions (frontier markets and the Middle East for example) and end investors are more engaged and interested in the topic, further encouraging the buy side to engage, and a number of banks now have a defined digital asset strategy.
Our work on the evolution of the digital bond ecosystem has continued. This is a key strategic theme for us. With Clifford Chance assisting and working with a number of our other members, we published a paper on risk factors and disclosure in Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) bond offering documents in November.
We have continued to drive the adoption of common standards and best practices via the the Common Domain Model (CDM) and the Bond Data Taxonomy (BDT), reporting and tracking clear use cases across the membership. We have adapted the BDT to take account of DLT Bond related attributes.
The CDM was released together with ISDA and ISLA in February as a standardised model for end-to-end automation of repo, securities lending, bond and derivative transactions. It is fully ‘open source’ hosted FINOS.
Our advocacy work has continued with ICMA acting as an important ‘bridge’ between the industry, regulators and central banks, to support consultations and experimentation to progress the testing of new technologies. Active engagement with the Bank of England, HM Treasury, the Eurosystem, as well as our APAC regulators has further expanded this year.
Our flagship FinTech and Digitalisation event was held in London on 5 December with over 300 delegates attending in person. Our vendors were given the opportunity, for the first time, to promote and demonstrate the solutions that they have built to support bond issuance and electronic trading, operations and DLT-based services.
In Asia we attended both the Hong Kong and Singapore Fintech Festivals further raising the profile of ICMAs work in this area.
Two new Financial Technology courses were launched this year: “Fintech in the Capital Markets: Spotlight on Primary”, and “Introduction to Digital Assets”. These will continue in 2024.
It has been a busy but productive year for the whole team and we are grateful to all our members for their continued help and support in all of our work.
Contact: FinTech@icmagroup.org
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Welcome to the International Capital Market Association
For over 50 years ICMA and its members have worked together to promote the development of the international capital and securities markets, pioneering the rules, principles and recommendations which have laid the foundations for their successful operation.
A global community for the capital markets
ICMA has around 640 members located in 71 jurisdictions drawn from both the sell and buy-side of the market.
ICMA engages with its global membership on market practice and regulatory policy issues through its expert forums.
Here are the key sections covering our work programmes, including contact details of ICMA staff responsible for each area.
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Primary Markets
- ICMA Primary Market Handbook - Home
- Primary Market Committees ‣
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Primary Market Topics
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- Accounting and Auditing
- Benchmark Reform and Transition to Risk-Free Rates
- MiFID II/R in Primary Markets
- Primary Markets Conduct (non-MiFID)
- Electronification
- Primary Markets Technology Mapping Directory
- Dialogue with Investors
- Prospectuses
- PRIIPs KIDs
- Retail Access to Bond Markets
- Market Infrastructure and Asset Servicing
- Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) - Primary Market Aspects
- Periodic Reporting / Continuing Obligations
- Taxation (Primary Markets)
- Other ICMA Primary Market Materials
- Primary Market Products ‣
- Primary Market Innovation (including FinTech & Digitalisation)
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Secondary Markets
- ICMA’s Rules and Recommendations for the Secondary Market ‣
- Secondary Market Practices Committee (SMPC) and related Working Groups ‣
- Central Bank Corporate Bond Purchase Programmes
- Electronic Trading ‣
- “T+1” – the shortening of standard settlement cycles
- Market Transparency ‣
- Market Data ‣
- Market Liquidity ‣
- Secondary Markets Regulation ‣
- Euro Safe Assets
- Archive
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Repo and Collateral Markets
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Legal Documentation
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- Global Master Repurchase Agreement (GMRA)
- ICMA GMRA Legal Opinions
- ICMA GMRA Clause Library and Taxonomy
- Master Regulatory Reporting Agreement (MRRA)
- Resolution Stays
- ICMA FAQs in relation to the GMRA and market turbulence
- 2011 Global Master Repurchase Agreement (GMRA) Protocol (Revised) Adhering Parties
- Repo and Collateral Council and related groups ‣
- ICMA ERCC Publications ‣
- “T+1” – the shortening of standard settlement cycles
- Market Data ‣
- Regulation ‣
- FinTech ‣
- Repo and Sustainability
- Other Resources ‣
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Legal Documentation
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ICMA serves as Secretariat to the GBP, the SBP, the SBG and the SLBP, providing support while advising on governance and other issues.
ICMA also leads numerous other initiatives in sustainable finance. ICMA is at the forefront of the financial industry’s contribution to the development of sustainable finance and in the dialogue with the regulatory and policy community.
ICMA seeks to mainstream relevant FinTech developments and market electronification through all of its initiatives, activities and fora.
FinTech and market electronification are addressed through ICMA’s various committees, working groups and work streams as well as through bilateral discussions with member firms and technology providers.
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