4 minute read
COMMENTARY FROM THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE
Looking ahead with optimism
by Bryan Pascoe
Four months into the CEO role, I feel that this is an excellent opportunity to reflect on the work done by the ICMA and also to think ahead. The year has obviously been shaped by the ongoing impact of the pandemic, but, as difficult as that has been, it has in no way slowed the pace of engagement and output by our staff and members. It has been very noticeable how adaptable all parties have been in continuing to operate in a virtual manner whether that be around internal meetings, committee meetings, events, and education courses. All elements have continued at pace, and it is very encouraging to see how efficient we have become in communicating through virtual channels.
At the same time there are always going to be greater efficiencies in some elements of formal and informal faceto-face interaction and our staff have enjoyed the ability in the last few months to spend time in the office and hold inperson meetings with all stakeholders. Personally, I have been fortunate to be able to conduct several trips within Europe to meet with members, regulators and key stakeholders, which has been invaluable in helping to frame my views on how to take the Association forward. With COVID-related restrictions again escalating we are needing to adapt once again, but constructively we now have the ability to switch modes and deal with this almost as “business as usual”.
At the Board meeting in early December, I was able to lay out my strategic action plan for ICMA looking ahead. A key element of this plan will be to elevate our FinTech and digitalisation proposition as a critical over-arching theme across our business verticals of Primary, Secondary and Repo and Collateral, providing thought-leadership, encouraging consistency, standardisation and interoperability across business lines, and supporting deliverable frameworks for best practice. Our current proposition, in conjunction with the work of FinTech Advisory Committee (FINAC), already drives several strong initiatives but there is significant scope to enhance our visibility in this space, and to support members more broadly and strategically as regulatory focus on the use of technology, data and decentralised infrastructure solutions intensifies. Commercialising our broader best practice offering and creating a more visible ICMA brand will also be a focus. Using data more effectively, we will look to provide members and stakeholders with more agile thought-leadership output on broader market trends and developments across secondary, repo and primary markets in both conventional and sustainable format. Our existing education programme is already very strong and has adapted well to virtual streams with a 60% increase in course registrations over the last year, but we can further enhance this through developing the breadth of our courses, improving delegate experience and astute marketing. Coupled with these enhancements we will look to strategically grow our membership base around our core competencies, especially in areas (both geographic or by member type) where we feel we can strengthen our relevance and impact, at the same time ensuring this enables us to refine and balance the structure of our committees to drive the most diverse debate and output. Our market-leading advocacy work will naturally remain central to the value and relevance we bring to all members. Our effectiveness in this space has been strongly underlined in 2021 by our core involvement and leadership in areas such as IBOR reform, settlement discipline and the MiFID transparency regime. Looking into 2022 the regulatory workload will remain heavy with post-Brexit divergence between the EU and UK regimes being an important area where we can support members. Further within the context of the EU, the heightened focus and intensification of activity in the broad-reaching CMU project presents a significant opportunity for ICMA to work with members to help frame critical market infrastructure developments. Work is already afoot in both the advocacy and market practice arenas across a number of streams and the close proximity to EU decision makers and stakeholders through our Brussels office will be instrumental in ensuring we focus our resources efficiently. Further afield, our Asia-Pacific team recently played a critical role in the Hong Kong SFC consultation on syndication
and bookbuilding market practices and this will remain an important focus area for us with both sell-side and buyside members as we help to shape its implementation throughout the first half of 2022. As the Asian debt capital markets and fixed income arena continues to develop and grow, I feel very strongly that ICMA will be able to play a critical role in supporting key cohesive initiatives such as the internationalisation of the China debt capital markets, repo market growth and local currency market development. Sustainability across all regions remains a core overarching theme for ICMA. This year has seen an acceleration of the market in terms of volumes, with issuance of almost US$1 trillion now recorded, but it has been the rapid developments in complexity, potential fragmentation of taxonomies and regulatory reporting and disclosure developments that have been even more dynamic. There is much work to do in this area to ensure the market evolves in an orderly and functional manner to support high-level political and social ESG goals and ICMA is uniquely positioned to play a key role in the debate as this evolves.
As a final word I would like to thank members, Board members and colleagues for the support and engagement I have enjoyed so far. I would also like to congratulate all my colleagues on their great achievements throughout a very intense and challenging year. There are busy times ahead and, from where we stand now, the environment in 2022 promises to be no easier than it has been in 2021. Once again, we will need to be flexible and adaptable to deliver on all our priorities and initiatives. I wish everyone a safe and successful year ahead.
