Here we are, heading into the final quarter of 2026. September has seen us at home have the Back to School, Back to University, and Back to Full-on Diary Squeeze. Perhaps one of the most understated benefits of the summer is the slowdown in all the diarised activities and commitments.
My summer was amazing. Thank you to everyone who offered advice for our French trip – we will certainly be back in Annecy. Fear got the better of me, and I declined the canyoning experience: a bad knee, slippery rocks, and overenthusiastic children are not always conducive to long-term health (mine!)
Now that I am back in London, I am very much looking forward to the rest of 2026 – Halloween, Guy Fawkes, and then Christmas…with a sprinkling of sports, music, and family trips. Highlights to show my eclectic tastes – Harry Styles, Muse, Philadelphia Eagles, and of course Rangers and Chelsea. I did, however, decline the opportunity to see Westlife and wear a pink Stetson on my recent trip to Dublin.
Before turning to the loan markets, a big thank you to Cecile for organising our volunteering day at Hackney Foodbank, a local charity providing emergency food parcels and caseworker support to individuals and families facing financial crisis across the London Borough of Hackney. Together, the LMA team collected 327 kg of food, equivalent to 327 emergency meals for people experiencing extreme hunger and hardship. A fantastic effort and well done to everyone involved.
Loan Markets
Our loan markets also had a ‘Back to Work’ feel in September with most arrangers looking to get their deals to market amid a build-up in underwriting and a strong pipeline. There remain some risk headlines, notably around interest rates and continued uncertainty in the Middle East.
The financing of data centres and compute power is another area attracting increasing press attention. This will be an area to watch, particularly around capacity and pricing.
Private credit also remains topical. Ongoing conversations with supervisory bodies continue to focus on data availability and the interconnections between private credit and the wider financial system.
Again though, credit markets remain generally strong. Investor appetite for quality assets is strong; pricing is firm for most asset classes. All these themes featured prominently in discussions at Eurofi and throughout our Annual Conference.
LMA Annual General Meeting
The LMA AGM was held earlier in September where, as you know, the key output is the election for several places on the Board. This year we saw a record turnout for the electorate by more than 50% over the past two years, testimony, I feel, to our members wishing to have more say. Thank you!
Several existing Board members stood down, and I would like to thank Agnes Decourcelle, Reinhard Haas, and Alice Gastadi for their support and input during my first three years at the LMA. Laurent Deroy, Doug Laurie, Tonmoy Andalib, and Miranda Abraham were all re-elected. Congratulations to them all.
And we have three new Board members – Natalia Tsitoura from Apollo, Nicolas Rabier from BNP Paribas, and Richard Waddington from Commerzbank. I very much look forward to working with you all.
Annual Conference
We also celebrated our London Annual Loan Markets Conference just a few days ago. Again, over 1,000 registrants, supplemented by a similar number streaming, underscored the importance of this event and of the LMA bringing our members together.
This year, we altered the format by running fewer panels and concentrating on the most important themes for the loan markets: Defence Financing, Digital Infrastructure, Use of AI in Loan Markets, and Portfolio Management/Risk Transfer. Our two guest keynote speakers brought all these themes together – thank you to Lucy Baldwin and Lt Gen Sir Tom Copinger.
Learning and Development
As you know, the LMA hired a new Head of Learning and Development several months ago, and it is gratifying to already see the green sprouts of growth. If you have missed it in our communications already, we have secured CPD accreditation, launched a new partnership with Fox Legal Training (FLT), and announced a new Certificate Course for the fourth quarter. Just in the last few weeks we hosted an LME in practice workshop, with high turnout from the buy side.
The FLT partnership has already seen over 200 firms sign up for this free online offering and our Certificate Course was sold out almost immediately.
This sets a high bar, with more to come as we go through 2026 and into 2027. To learn more about our learning and development offering, please contact Marc or visit the relevant page on the LMA website.
Events
Sidrah Arif, Head of Middle East, completed a regional roadshow in the Gulf, meeting a large number of member and non-member firms in Riyadh, Muscat, and Doha. These visits also enabled us to deepen engagement with local supervisory bodies and offer continued support around documentation and capacity building. This sets out an early marker as we near our Middle East conference in October.
Jesse Beardsworth contributed to Helaba’s CRD VI seminar, delivering an introductory keynote and then participating on a roundtable covering Article 21c and cross-border lending. The global audience gave us an opportunity to showcase the LMA’s thought leadership and guidance for members in this area. This will remain an important area of focus for us as these regulations require some navigation.
And finally, the LMA attended the main global regulatory conference held by Eurofi in Dublin. This provided an opportunity to meet several influential politicians, senior supervisors, and legislators. The main themes remain bank competitiveness, financing the real economy, and simplification. Captured in these are of course CRD VI, securitisation, SIU, and private credit.
Membership
I would encourage you all to remain vigilant and alert. Over the last 4 weeks, we have had reports from 4 members who have received a fraudulent renewal form for payment. I am sure you all have your own tight control and payment process flows and I would encourage you to continue to follow a ‘trust and verify’ model.
Coming Up
Our events calendar sees Middle East conference in Dubai on 21 October, Sustainability Conference in Paris on 3 November, the Agency Conference on 18 November, and West Africa Loan Markets Conference and Training on 24 and 25 November in Lagos. Additionally, the LMA will be present at AFIS in Angola (IFC invite only conference), speaking at Abu Dhabi Finance Week (private credit and sustainable finance panels), and at the LSTA Conference in New York.
Scott McMunn
CEO
Loan Market Association
