The International Capital Market Association (ICMA) has published its third quarterly evaluation of market practice and regulatory policy for 2025. The report highlights the Eurobond market’s growth, now reaching €14.6trn outstanding across 12,000 issuers, and analyses the impact of US reciprocal tariffs on financial stability. It also tracks the evolution of digital bonds, noting that over 200 distributed ledger technology-based transactions were processed in 2024. Additional areas of focus include the implementation of the EU Savings and Investment Union, sustainability in commercial paper markets and emerging market trends in China and Korea.

The International Capital Market Association (ICMA) has published its fourth quarterly evaluation of market practice and regulatory policy for 2024. This issue canvasses the international capital markets, the drive of digital transformation amidst global markets, Europe’s bond market transparency, sustainable finance, fintech and digitalisation, asset management and primary, secondary, repo, and collateral capital markets.

The International Capital Market Association (ICMA) has published the results of the European Repo and Collateral Council 's (ERCC) 50th semi-annual survey of the European repo rate. The survey analysed the outstanding volume of repo and reverse repo transactions held by 59 participating institutions as at close of business on 10 December 2025. The findings indicate that the repo market continued to function effectively, meeting heightened demand for precautionary liquidity and providing a safe-haven for investors. The survey also notes that the market absorbed increased levels of government debt issuance. Despite uncertainty and volatility, repo rates remained broadly stable, including over the year-end period, partly due to central bank measures encouraging routine use of liquidity facilities.

This Practice Note contains a summary of new and updated documents published by the International Capital Markets Association (ICMA). It is updated and reviewed regularly and covers documents published since January 2017. Information in this Practice Note is also included in relevant Practice Notes in Banking & Finance. All of the ICMA updates referred to in this Practice Note were originally published on the ICMA website (subscription required for full access). Commentary and related documents are provided by Lexis+® UK Banking & Finance. 2026 Date of update/announcement from ICMA ICMA news 30 September 2026 ICMA responds to European Commission consultation on MiCAR reviewWhy? ICMA has submitted a response to the European Commission’s targeted consultation on the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR) review. ICMA said tokenised securities that are financial instruments should remain under sectoral financial-services legislation, and called for recognition of electronic money tokens and tokenised deposits as settlement assets and collateral, lower EMT reserve deposit requirements, and 24-hour EMT redemption once checks and wallet receipt are complete. 28 September 2026 Smart contracts

The International Capital Market Services Association (ICMSA) has updated its template of standard provisions for meetings of bond or note holders to incorporate advanced electronic consent wording. This revision addresses the issue where traditional bondholder meetings were often favoured due to higher threshold compliance for electronic consent resolutions whereas; the updated wording permits resolutions to be passed without an actual meeting when vote outcomes are known in advance via Euroclear Bank and Clearstream.

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The Data Protection Practitioners’ Conference (DPPC) 2025 brought together data protection professionals for a day of practical insights, expert panels and forward-looking discussions. Marking Ada Lovelace Day, the conference highlighted the intersection of technology, privacy and trust, with keynote contributions from leaders in AI and data ethics. The Information Commissioner, John Edwards opened the event by announcing that the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) will transition to become the Information Commission in April 2026, signalling a shift in governance but a continuation of its core mission. His speech emphasised agility in the face of rapid technological change, the importance of public trust, and the ICO’s proactive stance on cyber security, AI, and legislative reform, particularly the Data (Use and Access) Act.

The Information Commissioner’s Office’s (ICO) PACE project has issued recommendations to the tracing agent sector following an investigation into the sector’s data protection practices. This investigation was prompted by a concern raised by a women’s charity, which said that a tracing agent had tracked down a domestic abuse victim to their place of safety at a refuge and passed this personal information to their abusive former partner. Despite the investigation not finding evidence where tracing agents had been involved with the sharing of victims’ details, ICO’s PACE reminded tracing agents and its professional bodies of their data protection obligations, and recommended that before agreeing to conduct any tracing services, agents should ensure any impact on the people they are tracing is justified, data security and privacy measures should be integrated into all data protection activities, and agents should conduct an audit of their policies and procedures to ensure they are complying with data protection law.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has, following their review of period and fertility apps, urged all app developers to ensure they protect users’ privacy. While the review did not flag serious compliance issues, the ICO wants to remind app developers to remain transparent with how they use personal information, ensure that they have genuine and valid consent to use personal information, establish that they have a valid lawful basis to process this data and be accountable for the information they hold.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) have jointly published a Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) Cost-Benefit Awareness Tool. This resource is designed to help organisations evaluate the costs and benefits of adopting emerging PETs, such as homomorphic encryption and secure multi-party computation. Accompanied by a checklist, the tool aims to support responsible data use and innovation while safeguarding privacy. The initiative addresses the low uptake of PETs due to challenges in assessing their value, and includes guidance on compliance costs and benefits. A repository of real-world PETs use cases has also been released to illustrate practical applications across various sectors.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has reached an agreement with Easylife Ltd (Easylife) to reduce the monetary penalty notice to £250,000 for breaching the UK General Data Protection Regulation, Retained Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (UK GDPR). Easylife has accepted the ICO’s findings as set out in the monetary penalty notice and has agreed to pay the reduced fine. This follows the ICO's fine to Easylife on 4 October 2022, where an investigation found that Easylife was making assumptions about customers’ medical conditions, based on their purchase history, to sell further health related products. This was deemed to involve processing of a special category data without a lawful basis, where Easylife has since stopped the unlawful processing of special category data.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and His Majesty’s Government (HMG) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) setting out a shared framework for cooperation to protect people’s information, including personal data, data protection, data security, and the government’s handling of personal data. The MoU notes that the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and the Cabinet Office act on behalf of HMG for the purposes of the MoU and are responsible for leading its implementation. Nothing in the MoU creates legally enforceable obligations; rather, it reflects the mutual intentions and understandings of the parties.