ICMA Podcast

Robert Parker, Chair of ICMA's Asset Management and Investors Council, reviews the market events of the last week in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a specific focus on the ECB announcements on 4 June, fiscal stimulus in Europe, and investors’ positioning.

Ijlal Ahmed Alvi, Chief Executive Officer of the International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM) offers his insights into Islamic finance, giving a brief history of modern Islamic banking and an overview of the Islamic financial model. Ijlal discusses the various financial products, the challenges of integrating it in today’s capitalist financial system, and how Islamic finance, which reflects the concept of social benefit and social value, can offer lessons for the markets’ response to the current pandemic.

As Clearstream celebrates 50 years in the market, Arnaud Delestienne, Head of Eurobonds Business, speaks to ICMA about its role in the value chain as a major global ICSD. He discusses how Clearstream as a systemic infrastructure has navigated through the COVID-19 crisis, reviewing the main trends and operational challenges from an ICSD angle and highlights the pipeline of regulations that will affect (I)CSDs and their participants in the months to come while assessing the challenges for market preparedness. Looking to the future, he also talks about the emerging opportunities including ESG/sustainability, automation and new technologies.

An ICMA Education podcast, Angela Yorath, the trainer on ICMA’s newly launched Introduction to Primary Markets Qualification (IPMQ) Online, gives an overview of the basics of primary markets, the role they play, both from an equity and fixed income perspective and the main participants involved. Key concepts for the debt primary markets, including underwriting, price-setting mechanisms and bookbuilding are explained.

Robert Parker, Chair of ICMA's Asset Management and Investors Council, reviews the market events of the last week in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a specific focus on today's upcoming ECB meeting (June 4), investors positioning in the context of the credit and equity rallies, and the potential risks lying ahead.

ICMA’s Chief Executive Martin Scheck speaks to Kalin Anev Janse, Chief Financial Officer and Member of the Management Board of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) about their Pandemic Crisis Support, a credit line for the 19 countries of the eurozone, representing up to €240 billion worth of assistance covering direct and indirect health costs. It is part of a European €540 billion package put together with the European Commission and the European Investment Bank to complement national efforts in funding healthcare, cure and prevention related costs for the COVID-19 crisis. Kalin also discusses how ESM will raise funds for this Pandemic Crisis Support through social bonds, based on the Social Bond Principles.

Amy Clarke, CEO of Tribe Impact Capital, is interviewed by ICMA’s Lisa Cleary about whether the momentum behind Gender Lens Investing has been slowed by the market impact of COVID-19 and whether the crisis offers an opportunity for reflection and change in investment strategy and business practices more generally.

Henrik Raber, Global Head of Credit Markets, Standard Chartered shares his insights on the capital markets with a focus on emerging markets. Henrik discusses how capital markets have generally performed, the potential long term implications of the high sovereign debt issuance as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, and the importance of investing in a deep and efficient capital market.

Jillian Haslam, renowned author and motivational speaker, is interviewed by ICMA’s Katie Kelly about her path from an extremely deprived childhood in India to an exceptional career. She discusses the importance of resilience and hard work and makes recommendations for surviving challenging situations, including taking control by making a plan each day and deciding whether to see yourself as a liability or an asset.

Andy Hill discusses ICMA’s new report documenting the performance of the investment grade secondary bond market in Europe from February to April 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented levels of market volatility. During the peak of the crisis, before central bank intervention, participants resorted to voice trading when the market became too volatile and too illiquid for dealers to risk providing pricing across electronic platforms, although trading volumes recorded through platforms were at record levels. One of the key lessons from the crisis is that while market infrastructure held up well after 10 years of technological innovation, the role of market-makers in creating liquidity remains at the core of the secondary markets. Reducing the ability of market-makers to provide this service will inevitably impact market liquidity and efficiency, especially in times of market stress.