2025 UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue: Inclusion of ICMA in the policy outcomes
13 January 2025 The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves and Chinese Vice Premier, He Lifeng concluded the 2025 UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD) in Beijing on 11 January. Established in 2008, the EFD is an important mechanism for bilateral communication and policy coordination on strategic, long-term and overarching issues in the economic and financial fields.
The work of the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) was referenced under capital markets of the EFD's policy outcomes, specifically:
- Both sides welcome exchanges between the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), and support Chinese issuers to issue and list RMB-denominated debt in the UK.
- Both sides welcome further collaboration between the People’s Bank of China and ICMA to assist in China’s adoption of ICMA’s Global Master Repurchase Agreement (GMRA), the predominant master agreement for cross-border repurchase agreement transactions. Both sides note qualified UK financial institutions can participate in bond repo via the Qualified Foreign Investor (QFI) and China Interbank Bond Market (CIBM) Direct programme.
- China welcomes more qualified UK institutional investors to actively participate in trading and related business in China’s interbank market. China welcomes qualified UK entities to issue bonds in China’s Interbank Bond Market (CIBM). Both sides also welcome the National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors (NAFMII) and ICMA to further deepen cooperation on green bonds, panda bonds, primary bond market practices, repo, and collateral management under the framework of their MoU.
- Both sides recognise the importance of people-to-people links in enhancing understanding of each other’s financial markets, stimulating dynamism, and driving innovation. Building on the success of a generation of Chinese financial leaders who have studied in the UK and those who continue to study in the UK on Chevening scholarships, both sides agree to establish a new UK-China Chevening Financial Fellowship programme, designed to facilitate senior executive learning and experience sharing for financial sector leaders. Both sides welcome the collaboration on capital markets training and capacity-building for Corporate Finance Consultants (CFC) provided by ICMA.
More information on the 2025 UK - China EFD is available on https://lnkd.in/eaNcnQPw
View the Outcomes Document
