International Capital Market Practice and Regulation Summary of practical initiatives by ICMA

The purpose of this section of the ICMA Quarterly Report is to summarise recent and current practical initiatives by ICMA with – and on behalf of – members.

Regulatory policy

1 RPC/CRR cooperation: ICMA’s Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC) and Committee of Regional Representatives (CRR) are working closely together in the financial centres in which the RPC meets to review ICMA’s regulatory policy work and engage in discussion with the official sector.

2 UK regulation post-Brexit: ICMA has accepted an invitation to join HM Treasury’s Future Regulatory Framework implementation group for engagement with the industry, alongside a number of other associations, the FCA and the Bank of England.

Primary markets

3 EU and UK listing regimes: ICMA has continued to engage with members and policy makers on proposals to reform the listing regimes in the EU and UK, including proposed reforms to the EU and UK prospectus regimes, the EU market abuse regime and the UK PRIIPs regime.

4 ICMA primary market events: ICMA’s European Primary Bond Markets Regulation Conference was held on 7 February at Allen & Overy in London, including participation from DG FISMA in the European Commission, ESMA, the AMF, BaFIN, Central Bank of Ireland, CSSF, HM Treasury and the FCA. The ICMA Asia Pacific Primary Market Seminar & Forum was held on 16 February at SGX in Singapore.

5 ICMA PSIF: ICMA’s Public Sector Issuer Forum (PSIF) met on 22 March in The Hague, chaired by BNG.

6 Commercial paper: The results of a recent survey on transparency in the commercial paper market (anonymised and consolidated) have been shared with the ICMA Commercial Paper Transparency Taskforce. The results of the survey will help to inform next steps of this Taskforce.

7 Primary markets technology directory: ICMA has published the latest version of its primary markets technology directory, which identifies several new and emerging platforms designed to facilitate the issuance of debt instruments.

Secondary markets

8 ICMA Bond Market Liquidity Taskforce: ICMA has set up a Bond Market Liquidity Taskforce which brings together market experts from different ICMA Committees with a view to making recommendations for improving the functioning of markets, both in terms of market practice and regulation.

9 MiFIR and bond market transparency: ICMA has continued to engage with EU authorities on the topic of bond market transparency as part of the MiFIR Review. On behalf of its members, ICMA has flagged a number of important issues, including the importance of aligning price and volume deferrals and the importance of outstanding bond issuance as a determinant of liquidity classification.

10 Trading from home survey: On 23 February, ICMA launched a survey on the trading from home arrangements and policies of ICMA members. In the light of the results, ICMA will consider carefully whether and, if so, how and to whom to disseminate them.

11 CSDR mandatory buy-ins: ICMA has continued to engage with the EU authorities on the proposal that CSDR mandatory buy-ins should be retained as a last resort. The vote in the ECON Committee of the European Parliament on 1 March was quite positive. Trilogue negotiations are due to start soon. It is understood that the Swedish Presidency wants to finalise the negotiations by the end of June.

12 Secondary market data: ICMA is publishing its second semi-annual report on European secondary bond market data.

Repo and collateral markets

13 Repo year-end report: On 26 January, ICMA published the European repo market at 2022 year-end report.

14 ICMA ERCC Committee elections: On 9 February, ICMA announced the results of the 2023 ERCC Committee elections, based on valid votes received from 80 of the 115 ERCC member firms. The 19 individuals elected to the ERCC Committee will serve for a term of approximately one year.

15 ICMA GRCF: The launch meeting of ICMA’s new Global Repo and Collateral Forum (GRCF) took place on 23 February with over 100 member participants.