As I write this first CEO note of 2026, I have a huge amount of anticipation for the year ahead. Obviously for the LMA but personally I am already looking forward to some changes, some fun, and it wouldn’t be me if I didn’t throw in a few challenges and unknowns.
A quick look back first though. For the first time in many years, as a family we stayed up to celebrate “the bells”. That is a Scottish term of course and doesn’t refer to the brand name of one of our national drinks. It refers to the start of the year as the clocks strike midnight and the anticipation of the year ahead.
I had my youngest to blame for the lack of sleep as there was much excitement about the final episode of Stranger Things and a 1am release. No spoilers from me but to share in something where there was a lot vested was very rewarding. From my side I was definitely able to get some down time. Hope you did too and found some time to spend quality time with your loved ones.
And so here we go again.
The year has already started with significant geopolitical noise injecting early-stage volatility into financial markets. Obviously, there is a large amount of posturing from several nation states as they look to protect their own interests and economies. I cannot recall where I have seen such a wide range of events in such a short period of time. It does seem to have receded post WEF in Davos (in some respects I look on in envy at the event and maybe one day the LMA will speak – on the other the logistical nightmare is more than certainly not worth it!) and this past week there has been a flurry of activity in the loan markets – new deals and repricing.
With this backdrop and the ebbs and flows of noise expected through the year selfishly I look forward to our events and hearing from many of you – be warned I will be tracking the predictions and outlooks as we steadily go through the year and will have a shout out at year end!
Perhaps this is the year again where I am able to celebrate sporting success with a World Cup and a national championship – maybe too ambitious?
Entering 2026
Even in the first month of the year, there is a lot to report on. I will cover membership and events below.
Already we have seen the first LMA Board meeting and I have also represented the LMA in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Abu Dhabi presenting to the Kuwaiti Banking Association and its members, providing an insights session on the LMA Islamic Transfer Certificate, and attending Gulf Climate Change Week. The interest in the LMA has been refreshing and the asks for outputs from the LMA are always great to see – we will work on what has impact, what supports your markets, and where we have resource.
Our Board session talked to the investment programme and development spend in 2026. A quick summary below:
1. CRM tool
Data and member knowledge is key. We need to ensure we have right contact points and distribution lists to allow you and provide to you curated and fluid updates on areas of interest to you. I also am inundated by frequent and unnecessary emails, and this work will increase the quality of what you receive and its relevance. On the other side we also do hear complaints that members in some cases are unaware of our thought leadership or our events or even our working groups. We will address this.
2. LMA learning and development platform
Many of you have provided feedback to us on what you want and the channels and methods to access. We now have this base and are breaking ground on the build. As you saw in 2025, we will be adding in some cases piecemeal with a long-term vision. I will provide more details on this in Q2.
3. Website design and an LMA rebrand
User experience and your personal journey have to be at the centre of how you access the main LMA connection hub. Provision of data to you and your firms will also be enabled through a member portal. We are underway on this work and are augmenting it with work on our brand ensuring the LMA represents the current and immediate loan markets.
Membership
Membership renewals are with you all and I am appreciative of those who have already paid. We will be looking to follow up with the laggards over the next few weeks. Already we have had fifteen new members join us with another ten in process. This is a fantastic recognition of the team here at the LMA and the value of our work.
I have set our goal to attract one hundred new member firms in 2026 in our thirty-year anniversary.
Events
We enter February with our two newest events and possibly the boldest events we have undertaken in our history. It is incredibly exciting as we enter the closing days. Thank you all so much for your support – the number of attendees signed up is amazing. I think we will have over 2000 attendees at just these 2 events.
LMA Edge taking place on 10th Feb, sees the technology hackathon (and I will write on this next month), over 20 solutions exhibitors providing real use cases to support markets, and an excellent array of talent – in this regard I would also like to thank the sponsors who have committed and of course the wonderful events team here for pulling it off.
You will also have seen all our communications about the LMA & ICMA Africa Summit 2026. This probably sees the highest level of speaker quality we have seen anywhere and the broadest range of attendees. This is also going to a huge success and will be the start of this as a main flagship repeating in 2027.
Closing
So a new year is usually ring out the old and welcome the new and as you have heard above there is a lot of “new” for us to look forward to in 2026, of course supported by the same – which as you know is some of the best foundational bases supporting the markets: documentation, advocacy, thought leadership and a tremendous engaged membership.
Here’s to 2026 and continuing to impact and support the EMEA loan markets.
Best,
Scott McMunn
CEO
Loan Market Association
