Dear members
As the end of the first quarter approaches, I no longer feel like such an LMA newbie and am pleased to report that we are gaining momentum across many of the key areas of our 2024 strategy.
Our membership continues to grow, with over 35 joiners so far this year. I’m delighted to see strong growth from sectors that are less well represented at present – such as technology providers, institutional investors and asset allocators – as well as from across our many jurisdictions. We are also working hard on how we articulate the benefits of joining the LMA, and how we support our members. I hope you will see this coming through clearly in our communications this year.
Working with our members to enhance loan operations is a key part of our strategy for this year. We have already engaged with a large number of stakeholders to better understand the reality of the challenges market participants face in the loan settlement process. The discovery phase of this work is over and we have established an ambitious but achievable plan to address some of the issues identified. As part of this plan, we will provide a toolkit as well as metrics and data points that members can use to inform their decision-making. We will provide more detail on this important initiative towards the end of March, as we launch a new Operations newsletter and build toward the Operations Conference in June. The LMA will also be working closely with the LSTA to ensure a co-ordinated approach.
I am also pleased to announce that Paul Taylor has joined the LMA, where he will take the lead in delivering on our loan operations initiatives. Paul is a seasoned practitioner with buy- and sell-side expertise of running operations and settlement teams. His mandate includes looking at the loan technology ecosystem (including LMA.Automate) and identifying how it can assist in reducing settlement times and improve efficiencies in the loan markets. He will organise surveys, webinars, demos to interested stakeholders, and – aspirationally – a Loantech Directory ahead of our 2024 Technology conference.
It was a pleasure to attend the APLMA Global Loan Market Summit in Hong Kong on 20-21 February, and to deliver a keynote on the LMA and our 2024 goals. It’s clear that there is strong alignment of priorities between the LMA, LSTA and APLMA around major themes for the global loan markets, including the growth of institutional investment, rise of private credit, ESG and loan trading. The APLMA put on an excellent event, and I came away with a number of ideas for enhancing our own programme of conferences. My thanks and congratulations to James Hogan and the APLMA team!
This week I attended the Africa Bonds, Loans & ESG Capital Markets Conference in Cape Town, where it was a pleasure to meet many of our existing and prospective members in person, as well as to learn more about the debt financing ecosystem in the region.
Our collaboration with other associations also continued with the 2024 LSTA and LMA Joint London Conference on 6 March. I was sorry I couldn’t make it, but understand the event was a great success with some fascinating insights – including 10 shocking scenarios for 2035 from our keynote speaker, the futurist Benjamin Butler – as well as plenty of opportunities for colleagues from the two markets to network and learn from each other.
You may recall that, in my last monthly update, I mentioned that we would be focusing on a smaller number of higher-impact events going forward. We have already addressed the events calendar for 2024 and are nearly complete for 2025. I look forward to providing more details soon.
I am excited to be introducing a series of new events and content initiatives in 2024 to support our strategic goals.
Later in March we will be formally launching a new initiative for younger lenders and bankers, with an event to be held in May. The team has developed an incredible agenda covering the future of lending and technology, the jobs of tomorrow, building your personal brand, and lending as a career path. I am very grateful for the support of many of our member firms in bringing this event to life and contributing to the future of our markets. Please stay tuned for more details.
I hope you will also have already seen more LMA blogs being published. We have built a great pipeline of exciting themes (and of course reach out to me at [email protected] if you have other ideas) and guest contributors who are thought leaders from inside and outside the loan markets. These blogs will cover topics including diversity, technology, digitalisation and activism, offering members new perspectives that I hope will challenge and inspire our thinking.
As well as the Operations newsletter I mentioned, we will also soon launch Horizons, an ESG quarterly. This will likewise be much more than a regulatory and legal update. Horizons will offer thought-provoking commentary and expert perspectives on sustainable finance, which remains at the forefront of the LMA’s work.
I hope the changes we are starting to make to our content and channels resonate with you. Please do let us know what you think: whether it’s positive or negative, your feedback helps us deliver what you want, not what we think you want!
I am pleased with the success of our submission to the European Commission on NPLs, and the responses it has received. This submission came about because members asked for some support from the LMA to help “set the standards.” We welcome these asks so please don’t hesitate to let us know about similar needs in future.
Our current regulatory work, although broad, has one project for immediate delivery, which is on ESMA reporting standards, specifically for ABCP, ABS, and CLOs. This is due in March, and we again welcome any feedback from you.
Once again, please do stay in touch and I look forward to seeing you soon.
Best regards
Scott
