Dear Members,
I am not sure if we’ve quite come up for air yet here at the LMA with another month of our calendar ahead but it feels like that period where it becomes a little less hectic – some of my London neighbours though seem to have started the holiday spirit a little earlier with the first sprinklings of Christmas trees and inflatable Father Christmas and reindeer pinned to their walls.
Personally, there is still some heavy lifting for us at the LMA over December, as we prep for another busy ahead – more of this later.
Libor/risk Free Rates Transition
Once referenced in an estimated $400 trillion of financial contracts, we were delighted to celebrate 7 years of work to the transition from Libor. The LMA worked with the official sector, our members, other trade associations, and other key players in the market to facilitate this journey. Sometimes we just need to say well done and keep the momentum going. We have got JIBAR transition and strengthening Euribor fallbacks on the horizon.
Green Loans
We have made some big strides in the green loan space. Our new draft provisions for green loans is live. These provisions mark a pivotal step in enhancing transparency and efficiency in the green loan market, which are critical for its continued growth, integrity, and impact. By providing a standardised framework, the provisions will streamline structuring, drafting, and negotiation processes, enabling market participants to concentrate instead on the substantive impact of green projects.
Funds Finance
One month into our work flow we are already advancing at pace with agreed deliverables around documents, thought leadership and increasing awareness.
Let us start with events. We started the month with hosting an amazing Sustainable Finance Conference, inspired by Homer’s Odyssey (there is a tenuous link!), another Africa event in Nairobi, our first FutureLend in Europe (Frankfurt) and concluded the month with our annual Middle East Loans Conference in Dubai. We also hosted a private credit breakfast with the member community touching on Sustainable Finance and the thorny topic of greenwashing.
Plus, we held a new Institutional Investor networking evening for members and non-members in the public and private loan markets, covering not just investors but those involved in the product innovation and overlap such as ETFs, UCITS, and CLOs.
That is just over one thousand of our members served on these events alone!
Reflecting specifically on two of these events.
Firstly, Futurelend – we launched this earlier in the year and have had over two hundred of your young talent and future talent “trained” around career paths. This has been a discovery for us, but the feedback has been overwhelmingly incredible, and it is here to stay. We will do two events in 2025 (London and Europe) for similar numbers. In Frankfurt we heard from Nic Hamilton, who delivered a powerful and emotional keynote sharing his journey. See here
And secondly, the Institutional Investor drinks competed with Bonfire Night in the UK and the US election but still saw many of the seniors from the buyside attend to network and hear the vision of the LMA – more specifically what we are we doing for them. This may have been lost and it is our job at the LMA to respark that engagement.
One foundational block to do this is the launch of the II Committee with the first gathering held in November. The agenda was certainly specific and tailored to actions that will benefit our members (and the rest of the market). We would love to have more of you engaged here to make it even more powerful. There is a submission form where we will receive proposals for projects.
As you are no doubt aware we have commenced the renewals process for 2025. The initial response has been exceptional with over 150 members already paid. There has been some enquiry, expected due to some of the category changes and fee change, and if you need any clarity around this please do not hesitate to reach out. 2025 is set to be an enormously powerful year for us, supporting you, and these loan markets.
The 2025 strategy has already been presented to and approved by the LMA Board and I will be communicating this to you all in the end of year note. This will set out the priority focus points, goals and targets, and how we will execute over next year.
It is always pleasing to receive an award and recently our partner Design House was recognised for brand delivery and design. The LMA publication “Horizons” was our part to play. Well done Gemma and Hannah for pulling this off but also to those of you who have provided the content – thank you!
You will have seen more blogs from us on key subjects and new speakers. The floor is yours too – if you want to feature and spotlight a subject we would love to hear from you.
We have even joined the Spotify family – not a technology acquisition but rather us now delivering podcasts through this medium. Always challenging to be on point and interesting, so we want you to contribute to this with us.
Normally I talk to the current workflow and expectations, but I will save this and keep you in suspense for the end of year update!
Again, a lot here for you. I look forward to sharing with you not only a year end message and scorecard but the plan and strategy for 2025.
Scott McMunn
Chief Executive Officer
Loan Market Association
