Dear Members,
It seems the year already is moving at an excessive pace, judging by our activities and book of work. There has been a lot going on. More of that later along with what is coming up.
On a personal level I was able to indulge the McMunn family with our half term ski trip and some of the reflections of the trip relate to the loan market and the LMA. Seeing the speeds and terrain mastered, I feel for us as a member association we should also be brave but within the right guardrails. And not being afraid to fall over as we push ourselves to be better. I hope you can see that this is what the great team here at your association is doing. (Though perhaps 100 km/h and off piste forest trails are too much!)
Going through our membership renewal process for 2025 has seen some challenges but I would like to thank those of you have renewed for your continued support. We have a few stragglers, and we will be following up with them throughout March. Overall, I have been appreciative of your comments and suggestions on how we can continue to serve you all and your markets effectively.
James Hogan – the Asia Pacific Loan Markets Association (APLMA)
I was deeply sad to hear of the passing of James Hogan, the Chief Executive of APLMA. James and I had formed a strong bond over the last 12 months in our new roles leading such great institutions – sharing ideas, collaborative thought, and overall support and counsel. He will be missed.
In February Gemma and I had the opportunity to see many of our Middle East members (and non-members) where we had our co-hosted Private Credit conference with DealCatalyst, LSTA and ADGM and held a series of roundtables (including with LoanBook, the First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), and Simmons & Simmons). This was my first business trip to the region with the LMA and it is clear there is a lot for the LMA to do. We had nearly 100 attendees at these roundtables and managed to see key stakeholders bilaterally. An enhanced strategy for the Middle East is being worked on and you will see this over the next few months. Please feel free to reach out to me if you wish to input. On the back of this trip, we prepared a blog which summarises the highlights of the trip – put simply there is appetite for the LMA to support markets and members.
I have also had the privilege of attending the ESMA annual conference increasing our connectivity with key regulators and other trade bodies. This event “Shaping the future of EU capital markets” focussed on the EU Savings and Investment goals, with a backdrop of a consultation which the LMA are responding to.
And finally, I was able to speak at the APLMA annual Hong Kong conference moderating a panel titled “Debt Leaders Dialogue: Finding Growth in an era of disintermediation” covering EMEA and APAC trends and overlap, talking to opportunities and challenges. This trip also allowed a number of 121s including the HKMA and many of the APLMA Board.
It is also worth noting our attendance at the Fund Finance Association Global Conference. As you know we have been working tirelessly across this subject and at this point the LMA would like to thank the many of you who have been supporting our working groups and outputs.
The start of March sees the LMA/LSTA conference taking place on the 5th, and it is remarkable to see nearly 1000 people looking to attend. The focus this year is on leveraged finance and private credit, and I look forward to seeing many of you there. It will be great to see our friends from the LSTA here in London and many of our joint members. We are also running our ever-popular Secondary Training on 6 March, which continues to attract strong interest.
Please note the dates for our European Conference in Madrid on 17 June and our London Conference on 30 September, as we expect these also to see significant demand. Scroll through the events calendar for further details!
We have introduced ongoing spotlight sessions at our regular Board meetings covering key focus areas and our strategy and goals for each. January saw us update on both Africa and the Middle East and assess our work on Primary and Secondary Loan Operations. We have made many inroads into tackling the challenges here, particularly around settlement times but we also know there is much to do in 2025. Our Institutional Investor Committee will be a key driver of making progress.
With the launch of several new committees, your Board is now personally overseeing some of the workflows and having not only oversight but more importantly accountability and ownership.
I mentioned in our last note the current regulatory consultations we are working on. Again, thanks to those who have contributed, and these will be published over the next few weeks. We submitted our response to the FSB consultation on leverage risks in NBFIs (see here).
We are still on track to launch our free version of LMA Automate in April, in tandem with our updated Documentation Portal. I don’t want to keep repeating this, but I genuinely am looking forward to the utilisation of Automate. On our member experience side the Documentation Portal is significant as will allow simpler functionality for you all and easier accessibility for our documents.
We launched the LMA Academy with new courses and materials, and there’s more to come! We are partnering with Financial Edge to launch the Financial Analysis Hub, which will provide a library of intermediate to advanced courses exclusively for our members.
A huge thank you to everyone who contributed to the LMA Fund Finance Intelligence Survey! We’ve received a promising number of responses and are now collaborating with The DrawDown to analyse the data and finalise the report. Stay tuned for the insights!
I won’t list all our publications here, but feel free to visit our blogs, the latest news section and alerts to review our most recent content. We launched two Fund Finance Insights—one focused on Europe and the other on the Middle East and Africa—as well as a Fund Finance Glossary of Terms. In addition to our participation in the GLP and AccessFintech podcasts, we’ve also launched podcasts on NAV Financing and ESG at the Crossroads, now live on our Spotify channel.
Additionally, we submitted our response to the HMT: UK Green Taxonomy Consultation and published the position paper on. A big thank you to all of you who contributed to this.
Last but not least, ESMA has released a consultation paper on a new ‘simplified’ framework for private securitisations. We have some concerns about whether ESMA’s proposals will effectively simplify the existing regime. The deadline for responses to the ESMA consultation paper is 31 March 2025, and the LMA intends to respond. We are keen to hear your thoughts and feedback. Read more.
February has seen a large level of personal interaction and connectivity with many of you and I believe, given the calendar, this will be repeated in March.
Many of these conversations have of course been complementary and supportive of our work, but more importantly have also afforded you the opportunity to input other requirements and ideas in what we should be adding to our repertoire. Thank you for this.
Best regards,
Scott McMunn
Chief Executive Officer
Loan Market Association
