It was announced on 15 February that Clare Dawson, Chief Executive of the LMA, has decided to leave the Association on 14 April to move on to other projects. Clare commented, 'It has been a pleasure to develop the LMA for almost 24 years, and to see its growing influence and success through some extremely challenging times in the loan market and the wider world. I wish the organisation every success in the future, and am confident I leave it in the very good hands of an experienced and dedicated team.'

The Board of the LMA responded, “We should like to express our appreciation to Clare for the leadership she has shown the LMA during a period of strong growth and expansion for the Association. Her determination to ensure the LMA is the voice of the loan market has always been paramount and she leaves the Association in a strong place from which it will continue to thrive. The Board would like to thank the LMA membership for its continued engagement and support and wishes Clare the very best for her next endeavours.”  

The Board has commenced a process to hire a new CEO and if anyone is interested in applying they should contact Charlotte Conlan, Chair of the LMA Board, charlotte.conlan@uk.bnpparibas.com

We are delighted to announce that over 800 organisations are now members of the LMA. What an amazing achievement and how fitting to reach this number as we celebrate 25 years of the LMA. Thank you to all our members around the world who continue to support and work with us. We now have members in over 65 countries.

We never take members’ support for granted, because it is together that we have made the LMA the institution it is today.

We are pleased to have published a schedule for compounded in-arrear CORRA. This has been produced in response to demand from some participants in the syndicated lending market to provide a suggested form of drafting for use of compounded in-arrear CORRA in conjunction with the structure for use of compounded in-arrear risk-free reference rates contained in the LMA's existing compounded rate facilities agreements. 

As it is designed to work with the structure in the compounded rate facilities agreement, the schedule is largely technical in nature and follows the form of the other currency schedules already contained in the compounded rate facilities agreements. 

We have released a note which outlines the documentary implications for the replacement of TARGET2. Market participants may be aware that TARGET2, the Trans-European Automated Real-time Gross Settlement Express Transfer payment system, is due to be succeeded in March 2023 by a new real-time gross settlement system (to be called T2). After T2 becomes operational, the LMA intends to update its facility documentation in due course to expressly reference the new system.

In the meantime, the note sets out the changes that the LMA plans to adopt in its definitions of relevant documentation once T2 has become operational. 

On 26 January 2023, the LMA released its updated Loan Servicing Heatmap to account for changes requested by the LMA's European Loan Operations and Agency Committees.

The new Heatmap and Guidance Document include:-

• The inclusion of a timetabled period for the creation of deal sites in the Heatmap and principal guidance document;
• Updates to the timetable period for executing Billing/Invoicing and Late-payment under the Heatmap and Fee Guidelines; and
• Removal of trading standards in relation to loan trading (to be covered in separate update to the Secondary Heatmap).

A copy of the updated Heatmap can be found here and a copy of the accompanying guidance document can be found here.

On the 19 January 2023, the LMA updated its privacy notice on account of the fact that Cvent’s CrowdCompass app, which was previously used by the LMA for its events, has been superseded by the Cvent Events app.  The Cvent Events app will now replace CrowdCompass as the events app for LMA events.

Click here to access the updated privacy notice.

Our final UK event of 2022 was our Early Evening Seminar in London on 1 December 2022. It comprised a panel discussion on the EMEA syndicated loan market, reviewing the year about to pass, and exploring what lies ahead for 2023. It covered: Market outlook, structure and volumes; Key challenges and opportunities; Loan market after COVID-19; What is the new normal?; and Investor appetite. The event was recorded and is now available on LMAPlayer to watch on demand.