ICMA Podcast

Christoph Rieger, Head of Rates and Credit Research at Commerzbank comments on the market environment in 2021, including excess savings, increasing inflation, the strengthening of the euro, and asset purchase programmes, with their implications for policy makers, particularly the ECB. He also considers how large scale issuance by the EU will influence financial markets this year.

Marc Chandler, Managing Director, Bannockburn Global Forex, joins Leland Goss, Managing Director & General Counsel at ICMA, for an in-depth conversation on the future of DCM and FX markets in 2021. They discuss the significant monetary expansion in the US brought on by COVID-19, the feasibility of European monetary union without a fiscal union and the outlook for the year ahead.

Robert Parker, Chair of ICMA's Asset Management and Investors Council, shares his outlook for 2021 for the asset management industry including his views on inflation, central bank monetary policies and the potential asset bubbles in the market. 

Paul Richards, Head of ICMA’s Market Practice & Regulatory Policy, Charlotte Bellamy, Senior Director, Primary Markets and Lisa Cleary, Senior Director & Associate Counsel, provide an overview of the implications for international capital markets from the end of the post-Brexit transition period, including changes to ICMA’s primary market documentation and the existing guidance for the Global Master Repurchase Agreement (GMRA).

ICMA speaks to Steve Toland, Founder at TransFICC, an e-trading technology company providing solutions for the fixed income and derivatives markets, who shares his views on how FinTech is creating efficiencies in the capital markets and current trends, including increased automation of work flows and processes. Steve also discusses the effect that the pandemic has had on the FinTech sector and the other challenges it faces, the role of the regulatory framework as well as the expected impact of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the future.

Robert Parker, Chair of ICMA's Asset Management and Investors Council, reviews the market events of the last two weeks, in light of COVID-19 rising cases and vaccines rollout, recent decisions taken by the ECB and the upcoming meeting of the Fed.

On this ICMA podcast, Cyrus Ardalan, Former Chair, ICMA, Chairman of Citigroup Global Markets Ltd. and Chair, IFFIm Board of Directors, together with Robert Parker, Chair of ICMA's Asset Management and Investors Council, and Simon Meldrum, Innovative Finance Specialist, Red Cross, discuss the recently launched Innovative Humanitarian Financing Forum (IHFF) and the role that capital markets can play in humanitarian finance. IHFF was founded in March 2020 to bring together representatives of public and private institutions in business, banking, charities and humanitarian organisations to explore how novel financial tools and instruments could expand resources for urgent humanitarian needs, from health emergencies and education to sanitation, hygiene and climate change. 

If interested in supporting or participating in future forums, please contact Carlo Piot (cpiot-external-consultant@iffim.org) or Thalia Chin (ThaliaChin@redcross.org.uk).

As we approach the need to build back from the unprecedented economic shock of the pandemic and governments consider the form recovery will take, members of the ICMA Future Leaders legal working group discuss the potential opportunities and challenges in this area.

Sustainability experts from Mizuho speak to ICMA about the development and outlook of the Japanese ESG related bond market, including a recent landmark sustainability-linked bond transaction in Japan. They discuss broader themes of sustainability in bank strategy and efforts to promote the SDGs and environmental conservation through the financial market.

ICMA Chief Executive Martin Scheck speaks to Axel van Nederveen, Treasurer, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) about its role in developing robust domestic capital markets. The discussion covers the responsibilities of multilateral development banks in helping to create capital market infrastructure in developing economies, the challenges involved and embedding the EBRD’s values of socially sound and sustainable development.