ICMA Podcast

Bryan Pascoe, Chief Executive of ICMA, reflects on ICMA’s role and priorities in the international capital markets.

Following ICMA’s Social Bonds Podcast Series in 2022/2023, this episode provides an update on the social bonds market: what types of projects issuers are funding these days, how investors are looking at social bonds, what the advantages of a portfolio approach in impact reporting are, and how ICMA’s Harmonised Framework for Impact Reporting can help. Simone Utermarck, Senior Director, Sustainable Finance at ICMA talks to Malika Takhtayeva, Sustainable Fixed Income Lead at BNPP Asset Management, Charles Smith, Senior Funding Officer at the EBRD and Felix Grote, Head of Funding & Investor Relations at Council of Europe Development Bank.

In this podcast from the Asset Management and Investors Council (AMIC), recorded on 10th June 2025, Bob Parker and Massimiliano Castelli discussed:

AMIC is ICMA's dedicated forum advocating the interests of buy-side members, including asset managers, institutional investors, private banks, pension funds, and insurance companies, among others.

If you have questions or topics that you would like our guests to address in future episodes, please feel free to get in contact via email: [email protected].

Speakers:

Bob Parker is former Chairman of AMIC and Senior Adviser to ICMA.

Massimiliano Castelli, PhD MSc, is Managing Director and Head of Strategy & Advice at UBS Asset Management and Co-Chair of the AMIC Executive Committee.

Learn more about the work of AMIC here: https://www.icmagroup.org/market-practice-and-regulatory-policy/asset-management/

Listen now to the podcast from the Asset Management and Investors Council (AMIC), ICMA's dedicated forum advocating the interests of buy-side members, including asset managers, institutional investors, private banks, pension funds, and insurance companies, among others.

Returning for this episode are industry experts, Bob Parker, former Chairman of AMIC and Senior Adviser to ICMA, alongside Massimiliano Castelli, PhD MSc, Managing Director and Head of Strategy & Advice at UBS Asset Management, who also serves as the Co-Chair of the AMIC Executive Committee.

In this podcast, recorded on 7th May 2025, the team discussed:

If you have questions or topics that you would like our guests to address in future episodes, please feel free to get in contact via email: [email protected].

Learn more about AMIC: https://www.icmagroup.org/market-practice-and-regulatory-policy/asset-management/

Andy Hill, Co-Head of Market Practice and Regulatory Policy, ICMA, considers the implications for bond markets of the recent wave of shortening of settlement cycles in securities markets, that began in the US and is now set to be copied in Europe and elsewhere.

Bryan Pascoe, Chief Executive of ICMA, reflects on the impact of the recent geopolitical activity upon the global capital markets.

Leland Goss, Managing Director, General Counsel, ICMA, assesses the impact of potential moves, in New York and London, to enact legislation aimed at addressing perceived shortcomings within the existing sovereign debt restructuring framework.

Natalie Westerbarkey, Co-Head of Market Practice and Regulatory Policy, ICMA, outlines how the fixed income market plays a key role in achieving EU investment needs by providing low-cost, simple solutions for retail investors’ wealth creation and alternative funding sources for corporations in addition to bank loans, resulting in the promotion of sustainable and innovative growth in Europe.

Paul Richards considers the opportunities for making European capital markets more competitive.

Nicholas Pfaff, Deputy Chief Executive, Head of Sustainable Finance, ICMA, and Özgür Altun, Associate Director, Sustainable Finance, ICMA, summarise the main points of their latest paper, published on 25 March 2025, which details reflections and recommendations for the sustainable fund market in a new regulatory environment.