Strengthening Global Markets
Financial markets are increasingly global, with investment flows, business strategies, and regulations crossing borders. ICI’s global team ensures that the voice of the fund industry is heard in these critical conversations, advocating for regulatory frameworks that strengthen markets and benefit the long-term individual investor.
Key Takeaways
- ICI advocates for regulatory consistency and effective cross-border regulations by encouraging the harmonization of standards on tax, accounting, disclosure, and custody where appropriate.
- We support efficient trading and market structure by providing industry expertise on market transparency, derivatives, dark pools, and other evolving market policies. We lead the global dialogue on settlement reforms, including promoting the Savings and Investment Union (SIU) in Europe and encouraging the transition to T+1 around the world.
- We are committed to protecting market stability, highlighting the essential role of nonbank financial intermediaries, such as money market funds, and ensuring regulatory approaches are tailored to their distinct structures and risk profiles.
- We advance policies that encourage global retirement savings and create opportunities for investors, leveraging ICI’s extensive data-backed research to show how regulated funds can support growing defined contribution plans across the world.
Global Advocacy in Action
With offices in Brussels, London, and Washington, DC, ICI is well positioned to advocate globally for the asset management industry, ensuring the interests of regulated funds, their managers, and long-term investors are advanced. We seek legislative action in key markets such as the EU, UK, Japan, and China and collaborate with international regulatory bodies like IOSCO, the Financial Stability Board (FSB), the European Securities and Markets Authority, OECD, and the International Monetary Fund.
We maintain frequent, proactive engagement with regulators and policymakers at global, regional, and national levels, ensuring the fund industry’s perspectives are heard early in regulatory debates.
Our current advocacy initiatives center on:
- Supporting settlement discipline reform: We have urged the European Securities and Markets Authority to ensure settlement rules support market efficiency while avoiding unnecessary burdens on investors and market participants.
- Creating deeper and more robust capital markets: We continue to strongly advocate that the European Commission and EU member states champion the creation of a European Savings and Investment Account (ESIA)—a new account structure modeled after successful and effective investment frameworks that promote long-term wealth creation in jurisdictions around the world. By expanding access to investment opportunities that enhance the financial wellbeing of European citizens, the ESIA would serve as a cornerstone of a thriving SIU.
- Promoting the global transition to T+1 settlement: We have provided industry expertise to help regulators and market operators implement a smooth, coordinated move to shorter settlement cycles across jurisdictions.
- Fostering pension reform in Japan: We have engaged with policymakers to cultivate a culture that is conducive to the asset management industry in Japan, as well as to improve the corporate defined contribution and iDeCo pension plans. Our advocacy efforts have resulted in government reforms that closely follow ICI’s recommendations and enhance retirement savings opportunities for millions of Japanese workers.
