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Over the past 40 years, ICMA has made a significant contribution to the development of the international capital market. Since the beginning of the Euromarkets, ICMA has facilitated the interaction between issuers, lead managers, dealers and investors for the benefit of an efficient and well-functioning security market.
From its beginning as a modest offshore market, the international capital market has grown into a broad and deep market of around €10 trillion serving the needs of governments, supranationals and corporates from all over the world. From year to year, decade to decade, the market has expanded dynamically across all geographical and product areas, helping the free movement of
capital across borders and the integration of economies, removing obstacles and building bridges linking the different national markets together, and enhancing structural reform and monetary integration.
ICMA in its activities was very often the frontrunner in creating the framework of cross-border issuing, trading and investing, and has constantly helped to build the relationship amongst all market participants. As a self-regulatory and trade association, ICMA has initiated numerous sets of standard practices to help develop efficient and well-functioning markets. As a trade association, ICMA, through its research and educational activities as well as organisation, has increased the links between institutions from all over the world.
ICMA has never understood itself as an advocacy or lobbying organisation, but as an association with the objective of finding practical solutions in the steadily changing political and economic financial framework. ICMA is and was always a strong voice in the promotion of free capital flows across borders and all other efforts on the long road to integrated capital and financial markets. In this effort, ICMA was a partner of regulatory and other governmental/monetary institutions helping
them in the achievement of very ambitious objectives. Promoting “best practices” and standards, contributing to education, helping supervisory authorities and furthering the links between its members, was and is ICMA’s mission.
For the benefit of all market participants, ICMA concentrates on “market questions and solutions”, not on the selfinterests of any particular segment of financial institutions. It is in this spirit that ICMA
developed a commercial activity, TRAX, which serves the market extremely well in data provision, until the activity was put into the professional hands of Euroclear, one of the the market’s most important infrastructure providers. The dynamic development of the international capital market and accelerated globalisation has led to evermore complex markets with many new asset classes, which pose market related, legal and practical challenges to market participants as well as supervisory and political authorities. The international market has therefore, on the one hand, seen many new trade associations active in particular segments of the market and, on the other hand, seen some consolidation among associations in other segments. In debt capital markets, ICMA continues to play a major role, particularly due to its unmatched geographical and institutional diversity. As a cross-border association, ICMA sponsors and brings together sell and buy side, works on the improvement of the legal framework and continues to see its mission to service
the market as a whole.
The events of the last 12 months have brought to light severe deficiencies in many areas of the capital market (documentary, legal, market practices etc), which compels ICMA to increase its efforts in order to help heal the damage done in what has to be considered a major market failure with all its economic and political consequences.
ICMA has and will continue to operate on a consensual basis in respect of regional, national or institutional diversity. ICMA is convinced that it is only cooperation which will allow us to continue to build the international markets and create a better infrastructure for the distribution of capital.
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