Innovation continues at pace, and I want the LMA to be bold – to embrace what’s possible, not shy away from the future, and not shirk from what can be.
Here are some of the upcoming events—please mark your calendar!
LMA Edge – a technology trade fair showcasing loan markets solutions to the users and decision makers. 10 Feb | London. As part of the conference, we will also be launching a Hackathon with the aim of hearing ideas and solutions around three solvable loan market problems.
LMA & ICMA Annual Africa Summit – shaping the future of loan and capital markets in Africa supported by training and networking.
25 and 26 Feb | Cape Town
European CLO & Private Credit Investor Conference in Tokyo – bringing our members together with the Asian investor base.
22 April | Tokyo
Fund Finance Conference – Bringing together up to 500 attendees across the EMEA FF ecosystem.
13 May | London
These events of course are complex and wouldn’t be possible without Meike and her events team, and Leyla and our comms effort. All important and critical parts of the LMA machine.
With growing focus on the fund finance markets, we published the fifth insights report, Fund Finance Ratings: Behind the Scenes, and released a podcast discussing last year’s intelligence survey with The DrawDown.
We also issued two conference summary reports: one on the South African and Sustainable Finance Conference, and another on our European Conference hosted in June. In addition, we published a podcast exploring the geopolitical shifts affecting the South African loan markets.
It is great to see work on the sustainability-linked loan markets was acknowledged in the recent FCA letter, and Gemma spoke to the press about the LMA’s wider sustainable finance agenda.
I am grateful to our Junior Board for supporting initiatives such as FutureLend by promoting and helping shape the agenda. Nominations are open, and I would be delighted to see more of your young professionals joining our Alumni network. Please reach out to myself or Events team to put your nominations forward.
We are in the middle of our promotional campaign for LMA Edge, where we speak with technology firms about emerging loan tech. You can see the latest interviews here. I will welcome it if you’d like to participate and share your views as part of this promotion.
Looking ahead, September will be a busy month, with the release of our Annual Conference Report, the next edition of our quarterly newsletters Horizons, and Challenging the Timeline.
Sometimes you need to be careful what you wish for! As you know I wanted to repoint the LMA around regulations and ensure we are recognised as the trade body representing such a critical and sizable part of EMEA financing. Well, we are certainly not short of opportunity to engage with and interact with policymakers and regulators.
On the European Commission’s Securitisation proposal, we are finalising a position paper that challenges policymakers to be more ambitious and address inconsistencies which continue to undermine the market’s potential.
On CRD6 implementation, our paper will set out concrete industry concerns with the national transposition of article 21c. This will be a joint effort, together with the Bank Policy Institute, Swiss Finance Council, UK Finance, the Bankers Association for Finance and Trade, and the Japanese Banking Authority.
We’re also closely monitoring developments following the FSB’s July report on NBFI, whilst we continue to push for a flexible approach to regulation doing justice to the diverse nature of the NBFI market (no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach).
And just last week, the EBA issued a Q&A on conditional sale agreements that raises serious questions for the loan market. On the recommendation of the European Commission, we will be discussing these with the EBA directly in the coming days. As always, we very much value your input. If you have any questions or want to be involved, please reach out to Hannah and Evelien.
Since the last newsletter, we have welcomed nine new members: Cengiz Holding, Association of the Luxembourg Food Industry, CME Group, Park Square, Ninety One, Oppenheimer, Smith Gambrell Russell, Studio Legale Zaglio Orizio Braga & Associati, and the Oman Investment Authority.
Dear Members,
Well, the summer break didn’t last long but I trust you were able to have some rest and recuperation. The loan markets didn’t seem to take any time out and there were some significant events and transactions over the summer period.
As a family, we were able to enjoy an amazing break in Japan. This was an incredible experience. We also had the challenge of dealing with a tsunami and two typhoons throwing some complexity (and worry) into the trip logistics.
I even managed to take some time out to check out the venue for the LMA Tokyo CLO conference to be held in 2026. We as a firm are very much looking forward to this.
The rest of the year will be incredibly busy and challenging for us – we are heavily committed across a few areas and will be looking for your continued support and engagement.
Despite it being August, I have also managed to see in person (or via Teams) 25 of the member firms. I look forward to seeing many more of you over September at the AGM and drinks, and then our annual conference.
As I have previously communicated, the AGM will be on the 24th September. The networking drinks are now at capacity, but I am more looking forward to seeing democracy in action. Seven of our current Board are up for re-election and there are several new candidates who are standing. I am keen to see the Board made up of key firms across the loan market, a diversity of positions and responsibilities, but more importantly candidates who want to commit to and impact our loan markets.
I will also cover a high-level strategy view at the AGM to share the goals and directions as we go into 2026. To get more information about attending the AGM, please reach out to Amelia Slocombe at Ameila.slocombe@lma.eu.com. Next year is our 30th anniversary and we will frame this appropriately – watch this space!
Looking back, we held our Operations conference in London and our South Africa Conference in Johannesburg. As always, the Operations conference was a great opportunity to network and hear insights into markets but was also marked by statistics showing the increased volumes and turnover in the leveraged loan markets. Secondary volumes are at all-time highs which has of course impacted settlement times. We do remain committed to support efficiency in these markets and we will be relentless here.
The South Africa Conference may be the last ever as in 2026 we are delighted to announce our new Africa flagship event in Cape Town with ICMA. This will see over 1000 delegates and in my view become the leading African markets conference. I am appreciative of the support from the leading African banks in making this happen. The registration will be opening soon.
September as usual will see our London Annual Conference. Please note the change in venue as we move to a new location. The content looks amazing, and we have some incredible speakers and sessions. Already there is a significant waitlist with other 1000 registered to date and over 100 signed up for the streaming access. This always pleases me to see the draw of the LMA. Click here to register for the live stream.
We have some exciting new features planned for the event, and we’ll also have a booth where you can learn more about your membership benefits and how to access them. Please stop by and meet the team.
Immediately after this we host our Middle East Conference in Dubai. I will be in the GCC for several days and will be aiming to see as many of the local stakeholders as possible. If you would like to meet me, please reach out to me on scott.mcmunn@lma.eu.com
Click on the below image to register for the upcoming conferences. Check the events page for more details.
We updated last month about our Financial Analysis Hub and I am pleased to see increased and continued take-up. We won’t rest here though, and we are looking at how we extend our offering and proposition for 2026 and beyond. This is another exciting project for us and is very much around ensuring the offering to you, our members, is relevant, needed, and will be beneficial.
It’s good to be back and to have the energy to now deliver through the rest of 2025. As I start to put together the strategic thoughts beyond this, I remain so excited about this association and what we can achieve. There will be some change of course, and there will also be challenge but we are building from a great place of strength.
Thanks for your continued support and input. If you feel you and your firm want to hear more and cover in person, then let me know. I welcome the opportunity to see as many of you as possible.
Scott McMunn
CEO
Loan Market Association
