FinTech & Digitalisation

Our FinTech & Digitalisation work expanded significantly on a global scale in 2024.

This year saw the adoption of ICMA’s Bond Data Taxonomy by Hong Kong SAR in its digital green bond issuance, ICMA’s collaboration with MAS on the Guardian Fixed Income Framework, the launch of ICMA’s AI in Capital Markets Working Group and a joint education programme with National University of Singapore on an AI Governance in Capital Markets, as well as the publication of ICMA’s DLT Bonds Reference Guide in December.

Our FinTech & Digitalisation Working Groups and committees continue to draw a diverse audience of stakeholders across the value chain of international bond markets: public and private sector issuers, investors, banks, market infrastructures, law firms, central banks, credit rating agencies, data providers and technology vendors.

This year also saw the introduction of a new artificial intelligence (AI) in Capital Markets working group. Since July, the group has grown to over 130 members, from over 50 firms based across 6 continents, illustrating the strategic importance of this topic to the transformation of the industry as a whole. The working group has also actively engaged with regulators around the world on important consultations on the topic, such as on the European Commission consultation on AI in financial services, reflecting the views of our segment of the Financial Services industry.

Our work on promoting the digital bond ecosystem has also progressed well this year. We have collaborated with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on Project Guardian – working with members and colleagues to develop the Guardian Fixed Income Framework (GFIF) building on the Bond Data Taxonomy (BDT) and promoting the standardisation of protocols and data specifications for tokenised securities. As well as the BDT being a centrepiece of the Guardian Fixed Income Framework (GFIF), this year also saw the BDT be used in a multicurrency landmark digital green bond offering by the HKSAR Government in February. This marks the first adoption of the BDT by an SSA issuer and is also the first for a green bond, marking an important milestone for future issuers considering adoption of ICMA’s standards and data models.

The DLT Bonds working group has also collaborated on a DLT Bonds Reference Guide, published in December, which highlights considerations for the end-to-end lifecycle of DLT-based debt securities.

Driving the adoption of common standards and best practices remains one of our key strategic themes for our team. Work has also continued on the adoption of the FINOS Common Domain Model (CDM). In September, a workshop was held on the CDM at the FINOS Open Source in Finance Forum (OSFF) in New York promoting use cases and encouraging members to consider where and how they might adopt it. This work will continue into next year, with an exciting agenda developing for the 3rd annual CDM showcase which will be held in London on 26 February 2025.

Our work expanded significantly on a global scale this year, with our inaugural ICMA “Innovation in Capital Markets” events being held in the fringes of the Hong Kong FinTech Week and the Singapore FinTech Festival. Over 100 attendees joined us from part of our 300 strong membership group in the region interested in our work. The FinTech and Digitalisation team also took part in eleven panels and roundtables at these events significantly raising ICMA’s profile as a leader in this space. We joined an IOSCO roundtable on financial asset tokenisation and an AI governance panel with the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Asian Institute of Digital Finance (AIDF) at Singapore FinTech Festival to discuss opportunities and challenges and raise awareness on our joint education offering.

We continue to take part in the ECB’s AMI-SeCO Securities Group (SEG), with a focus on post-trade harmonisation, the ECB’s New Technologies for Wholesale Settlement Contact Group (NTC-CG), which foster dialogue on central bank money and DLT transactions, as well as the UK’s Industry Data Standards Committee (IDSC), which aims to facilitate and lower the cost of regulatory reporting.

Our flagship FinTech and Digitalisation event in London returned on 18 September, bringing together over 300 participants. The event covered a variety of topics from DLT to AI and sustainable finance, as well as an engaging roundtable session discussing innovation in the fixed income industry.

We have continued to run two education courses this year, on the “Fintech in the Capital Markets: Spotlight on Primary”, and “Introduction to Digital Assets”.

We have also collaborated with our ICMA Sustainable Finance colleagues, working on the question ‘how can technology support the drive towards sustainability?’. A 190 strong joint taskforce has been established and will meet for the first time in early 2025.

Contact: FinTech@icmagroup.org