On November 18, 2016, the Fixed Income, Currency and Commodities Markets Standards Board launched a consultation on a proposed New Issue Process Standard for the Fixed Income markets. The FMSB was established in 2015 in response to the Fair and Effective Markets Review conducted by HM Treasury, the Bank of England and the FCA. The FMSB has created Standards to improve conduct in the FICC markets. The draft New Issue Process Standard is intended to improve existing practices so that the new issue process is further streamlined for all participants, including issuers, investors and lead managers. The proposed Standard builds on the ICMA recommendations for Investment Grade primary markets issuance. However, it is wider in scope as it will apply to syndicated offerings of fixed income bonds in the wholesale markets, including investment grade, high yield, securitization and emerging market debt offerings. Once published in final form, the Standard will apply to FMSB member firms, which are expected to comply with it on a global basis, subject to regulatory restrictions in certain jurisdictions. Responses to the consultation were due by January 17, 2016.
The proposed New Issue Process Standard is available at: http://www.femr-mpp.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/16-11-14-FMSB_NewIssuesProcess_FIMarkets_TransparencyDraft-Final-1.pdf .
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