Dear Members,
As I sit down to write this, I find myself reflecting on the passage of time. Instead of asking where summer went, I’m more inclined to wonder where September has slipped away to! The return to school has marked a significant moment for my family, particularly with our first experience of sending a child off to university. I’ll spare you the details of the laundry piles that inevitably came home!
Looking back, September was a whirlwind of activity for us at the LMA, filled with rewarding engagements and important developments.
We kicked off the month with our Annual General Meeting, marking the beginning of a new election cycle for the LMA Board. I was heartened to see 11 candidates step forward, and even more so to witness a notable increase in voting participation, with turnout up 37% from 2023! This not only shows the impact of LMA efforts over the past year but also highlights our member’s growing commitment to actively shaping our agenda. I’m pleased to announce that Gertjan van Toorn, Global Head of Loan Distribution Group at ING, has been elected to the Board. Thank you to all those who stood for election and everyone who participated in the voting process!
The LMA Global Loans Conference also took place at the QEII Conference Centre in London, where we celebrated Europe’s largest loan market gathering. With over 1,100 registrations, the atmosphere was electric, embodying our 2025 theme: Further Together. We introduced several firsts, including a CEOs of the loan markets panel and discussions on emerging themes such as Significant Risk Transfer and Funds Finance, alongside breakouts and pr-event gathering for our sponsors and speakers. A big thank you to our events team, speakers and sponsors for making this event such a resounding success.
We also held our inaugural CRI/SRT conference in London. This event highlighted the growing market landscape and welcomed many new entrants. We discussed impressive performance metrics (with a 100% payout on CRI claims) and significant growth (35% up in 2024), emphasising strategic risk-sharing and capital management to enhance capital flow to borrowers. Read more about our CRI/SRT.
In a panel moderated by my friend, Bryan Pascoe, CEO of ICMA, I had the pleasure of hosting James Hogan, CEO of APLMA and Sean Griffin, CEO of LSTA, reciprocating visits to their respective annual conferences. It’s evident that we have common goals to pursue, and I believe our collaboration will enable us to leverage interconnectivity across our members, addressing private markets, operational efficiency, and technological innovation. Watch the full conference here.
We are delighted to welcome new members to the LMA family this month. While some prefer to remain anonymous, others are eager to publicly show their support. Among those we can acknowledge, I’m excited to work with Termgrid*, the private debt software firm, and Emurgo, which provides products and services to drive the adoption of Cardano’s Web3 ecosystem. We now have 872 members, up from 850 at the end of 2023. And we continue to work to enhance the efficiency, liquidity, and transparency of our loan markets.
In a significant moment for the industry, the LMA published its final IBOR newsletter on the same day as the last LIBOR publication. While it was not a day of sadness, it was historic, and we are proud to have contributed to supporting our members through this transition. Although the newsletter has concluded, we continue to address outstanding areas, particularly EURIBOR and JIBAR. Read more.
You’ve likely noticed a wealth of engaging LMA content this past month. I want to particularly highlight Challenging the Timeline and Horizons.
In Challenging the Timeline, we provided updates on our efforts to reduce settlement times in secondary markets and our ongoing work on PDSC. We are nearing our goal of a 25% reduction, thanks in large part to the commitment of several bank dealer groups. I am optimistic we will meet this target by year-end, and we are also collaborating with the LSTA on aligned global objectives.
Horizons continues to impress me with its quality and insights. This quarter’s publication coincided with New York Climate Week, featuring a standout article on Scaling Transition Finance with Fiutur (thanks to Corinne and Andy) and a terrific Q&A with Igneo on Influencing the Ecosystem (thanks to Niall and Sophie).
As we move into October, I hope for a moment of respite following our busy September, but there’s still much on the horizon.
As many of you are aware, we have held a Funds Finance Strategic Think Tank to better understand our members’ needs. We will share the results early this month and form working groups to drive key outcomes. Several immediate priorities are set for 2024, with a focus on enhancing market information flows.
We have also launched an Institutional Investor Committee to address specific and measurable requests from the investor community, further supporting the LMA’s goals of efficiency and liquidity. Look out for requests for proposals, which will be shared in October.
I’m particularly excited about our inaugural European Annual Conference in Paris on October 23rd. This marks a new flagship event for us, and I look forward to seeing many of you there.
Thank you, as always, for your unwavering support. We have an exciting final quarter ahead, filled with challenging yet rewarding initiatives. As we approach year-end, I will be reevaluating our 2025 strategy and goals, which I look forward to sharing with you later this year. As always, I welcome any feedback on this newsletter or any aspect of the LMA’s activities.
Best regards,
Scott McMunn
Chief Executive Officer
Loan Market Association
*Termgrid’s collaboration tools enable sponsors, advisors and lenders to streamline their debt financing activities end to end — from deal execution to portfolio management — and drive strategic insights through a centralized transaction data platform.
Termgrid’s platform is utilized 900+ institutions and 15k+ professionals across top-tier Sponsors, Advisors and Lenders globally.
