The ICMA ETF Podcast: What’s new in fixed income ETFs?

Listen now to this ICMA Podcast on exchange-traded funds (ETFs), hosted by Anita Karppi, Senior Director - Buy-side at ICMA, who was joined by Tom Stephens of Schroders Investment Management, Pravin Bagree of UBS Asset Management and Josh Gibbs of State Street Investment Management to discuss what 2026 could look like for fixed income ETFs, and why ETFs are increasingly being treated as core portfolio infrastructure rather than “access” products.

In this episode, the panel discusses:

Bryan Pascoe, Andy Hill, Natalie Westerbarkey, and Irene Rey examine evolving market structure, resilience, and digitalisation trends shaping bond markets over the next decade.

Bryan Pascoe, Chief Executive, ICMA reflects on market resilience in 2025 and outlines the structural, regulatory, and digital forces shaping global debt markets in 2026.

Nicholas Pfaff, Deputy Chief Executive and Head of Sustainable Finance, ICMA introduces the Climate Transition Bond Guidelines and their role in mobilising capital for hard-to-abate sectors.

Allan Malvar outlines ICMA’s capacity-building work with regulators and policymakers, highlighting common challenges in market architecture, legal certainty, and post-trade resilience.

Thorsten Guthke and Irene Rey review the European Commission’s SIA initiative and its potential to channel retail savings into capital markets under the Savings and Investment Union.

Natalie Westerbarkey and Thorsten Guthke analyse how the EU’s Market Integration and Supervision Package could reshape trading, clearing, settlement, and digital bond markets.

Katie Kelly explores structural barriers and enabling measures to deepen and modernise the European commercial paper market.

Gabriel Callsen, Senior Director, FinTech and Digitalisation, ICMA summarises key findings on DvP settlement assets and custody models for DLT-based bonds under Project Guardian.