As I write this, Scotland are still going strong. Watching the matches so far has certainly hit the sleep cycle. For my summer newsletter, I have knocked up an expected image of where it goes from here – we can but dream! Even at our events and member meetings over the last week, the optimism has gone so far, I am looking at flight schedules and chances of getting tickets.
Wait....breaking news!
Where did I put that England shirt?
LMA in June
Right back to LMA matters.
It has been an amazing month here at the LMA in terms of getting out and seeing many of you, either at our events or smaller gatherings. I tried to visualise it below just to show the breadth of our activities over the last period. A road show tour tee was best I could do.
Let me start with the European Loan Markets Conference. We started this only two years ago, and it is amazing to see that it is now cemented into the LMA calendar. This year, with more than 450 attendees, we broke attendance records. What was particularly notable, however, was the exceptional seniority of the audience, bringing together many of the loan market’s most influential leaders in person from across Europe, including representatives from origination, syndication and the borrower community. There was of course deep content across many of the themes highlighted above but the networking opportunities are of course priceless. The audience polling showed a level of optimism regarding market outlook, volumes, and performance which was pleasing but the main question was where are we going in 2027?
The visit to the Middle East saw us meeting bilaterally with several of the key supervisory bodies and a handful of the wealth funds. This has led to a further opportunity to work closely with a key government body in the Gulf and to convene senior leaders among our members. I was blessed to be able to deliver a keynote at an industry event for the C-Suite – thank you to Finastra for putting this together.
Documentation remains a key part of our work and June saw us kick off work with the World Bank and other IDBs to develop standard loan documents. The goal now is to support increased transferability, address reporting and confidentiality challenges, and ultimately to enable increased lending capacity. We also published three South African Law documentation templates alongside a podcast that features key updates to the documentation.
I am delighted to see a number of firms put themselves forward for the Board election in September. We will be communicating soon around the candidates and process, but I would very much like to thank those firms for your commitment.
Markets
There has been much to talk about in June but specifically it was another reminder that financial markets are operating in an environment where resilience and uncertainty coexist. Geopolitical tensions in the Middle East drove sharp swings in energy prices, while central banks maintained a cautious stance as inflation and trade policy continued to shape the outlook.
There were continued headlines in private credit with the subject being a key theme for regulators – the Bank of England announced details of their new SWES test and in Europe the French authorities announced their first test. We should repeat though that the weighting towards this area is perhaps overdone given the size of the mainstream loan markets and for the LMA the make-up of our members.
Despite this backdrop, credit markets remained resilient, with financing activity continuing and investor appetite for quality assets proving remarkably robust.
In the equity markets, SpaceX was launched to incredible demand but then fell victim to a broader sell-off.
Beneath the short-term volatility, the longer-term drivers of capital demand continue to strengthen. Investment in digital infrastructure, artificial intelligence, energy transition and defence is accelerating. These were all key themes in our meetings with you over the last month and featured strongly in our European Loan Markets Conference in Milan.
And political fragility also played a part with another new Prime Minister to be announced here in the UK.
Events
Our 30-year anniversary is now less than 2 weeks away. We will welcome over 1000 of you, and I very much look forward to an evening of celebration. I cannot wait to hear many personal stories around your own journey with the loan markets and the LMA.
I mentioned the European Loan Markets Conference above, but we also hosted our latest FutureLend event in London. Well done to the Junior Board, who took ownership and delivered a great event to a record attendance. Listen to a recap of what was discussed during the event. The Junior Board have also put together some junior training in July for the Agency role and are also hosting Alumni Networking Drinks – I look forward to celebrating three years of FutureLenders.
Thankfully after such a fantastic first half, the events team can recharge and reset for the back end of 2026.
Membership
It is so pleasing to see continued membership growth, and we are now edging toward 900 members. I hope we will be able to celebrate that number in 2026. New members span a broad range of fields – regulators and central banks who are joining as Courtesy Members, technology and solutions providers, institutional investors drawn by our work on efficiency and our Tokyo conference, and regionally from our engagement, our events, and the general proposition. Thank you for your trust.
I am committed to regular outreach and connection to as many of you as we can and will do through our Membership Success team and the LMA seniors. Please give us direct feedback.
Regulatory
Tying into the June look back our trip to Luxembourg allowed us to meet with the Central Bank and the CSSF. Conversation was around fund formation, private credit, securitisation, and Article 21c (again).
Our Article 21c publication attracted a strong readership and our Luxembourg roundtable had 140 attendees. As we have progressed through 2026, I have great confidence that this work is being heard and contributed to by those in your firms that matter.
The last month saw consultations delivered across bank competitiveness, securitisation, private credit ratings and even two on AI. Sign up to our regulatory newsletter to stay tuned.
I look forward to July, where we will host a private dinner with the Bank of England and some of our members around the subject of private credit.
Sustainability and Transition Finance
With some heavy lifting over the last year (and more) to deliver the Transition Finance Guidance, it is now time to see Sustainable and Transition Finance move into the mainstream loan markets. Our publication Horizons touches on this and our other work.
It was particularly valuable to hear from Lucas Passa of Snam, one of Europe’s leading borrowers, during the keynote interview. His reflections on the role of the LMA highlighted the tangible impact of our work today, as well as the important role we can continue to play in driving efficiency, transparency and collaboration across the loan market.
Our Head of Sustainability, Gemma Lawrence-Pardew, also continued to raise the LMA’s profile across the market. Gemma recently joined a panel at the ICMA Principles Conference, one of the key events in the sustainable finance calendar. I was also fortunate to participate in a senior roundtable on transition finance, bringing together representatives from the UK Government, the FCA and their counterparts from Japan to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the market.
Closing
Well, a lot to talk about and a genuinely exciting few weeks ahead – the launch of our research piece on the Future of Loan Markets, and the 30-year celebration.
I look forward to seeing many of you. Please come and say hi and tell me your views. I am certainly keen to hear. For those who can’t make it, I encourage you all to please reach out to me. I receive a regular flow of emails and, whether plaudits or critique, I guarantee they are all assessed under fair challenge or celebrated within the LMA team.
Scott McMunn
CEO
Loan Market Association
