International Capital Market Association
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| Trade Association | |
| Industry | Regulation |
| Founded | Zurich in 1969 |
| Headquarters |
Zurich offices in London |
| Website | www.icmagroup.org |
The International Capital Market Association or ICMA is a self-regulatory organization and trade association for participants in the capital markets. Despite the name suggesting a global outlook, it has a European focus. It was formed in July 2005 by the merger of the International Primary Market Association and the International Securities Market Association (formerly the International Association of Bond Dealers). ICMA stated aims are to promote high standards of market practice, appropriate regulation, trade support, education and communication. It produces standard documentation for transactions such as equity and debt issuance and repos.
ICMA market conventions and standards have been the pillars of the international debt market for almost 40 years, providing the self-regulatory framework of rules governing market practice which have facilitated the orderly functioning and impressive growth of the market.
The International Capital Market Association was formed in July 2005 from the merger International Primary Market Association and the International Securities Market Association to create an association that covered both primary and secondary international capital markets.
The association has its roots in the creation of the Eurobond market in the early 1960s. Eurobonds created a new market in borrowing in US dollars offshore to avoid US tax regulations, but this itself introduced new problems with settlement and regulation across different jurisdictions. In response a group of bond dealers representing banks and securities firms established the Association of International Bond Dealers (AIBD) in 1969.
In the years that followed, AIBD enacted a series of rules and recommendations governing market practice, providing stability and order to the international capital market.
In the 1980s AIBD began to provide data services to the market and in 1989 launched the transaction matching, confirmation and regulatory reporting system, known as TRAX. In 1992 AIBD changed its name to International Securities Market Association (ISMA).
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