The federal bank regulatory agencies, as members of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), today released data on small business, small farm, and community development lending during 2024. The Community Reinvestment Act regulations require the agencies to annually disclose these data. The FFIEC also prepared aggregate reports of small business and small farm lending for each metropolitan statistical area and for each county in the United States and its territories. The statements are available here. Related Links Data tables (PDF) Fact sheet (PDF)

SIFMA confirmed its previous recommendations for the U.S., the U.K., and Japan in observance of the U.S. Thanksgiving Day holiday. These recommendations apply to trading of U.S. dollar-denominated government securities, mortgage- and asset-backed securities, over-the-counter investment-grade and high-yield corporate bonds, municipal bonds and secondary money market trading in bankers’ acceptances, commercial paper and Yankee and Euro certificates of deposit. SIFMA’s recommended early and full market closes are recommendations only; each member firm should decide for itself whether its fixed income departments remain open for trading. All SIFMA recommendations are subject to change due to market conditions.

The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) announces that Sergiy Kaspirovych has pleaded guilty to providing false or misleading information during an OSC investigation. This conduct is contrary to section 122(1)(a) of the Securities Act. Justice Moore of the Ontario Court of Justice today sentenced Mr. Kaspirovych to 18 months’ probation and 150 hours of community service. “The registration process serves as an important gatekeeping mechanism ensuring that only suitable individuals are permitted to be registrants. There is no place in Ontario's capital markets for individuals who lie on their applications for registration.” said Bonnie Lysyk, Executive Vice President, Enforcement at the OSC. “The OSC will continue working with law enforcement to protect investors, and we would like to acknowledge the valuable assistance received from the Toronto Police Service and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in this investigation." Between March 16, 2023, and April 1, 2023, Mr. Kaspirovych provided forged documents to the OSC in support of his registration as a scholarship plan dealing representative. The two false documents were electronic files purporting to be criminal record checks. The false documents showed that Mr. Kaspirovych did not have a criminal record; however, the investigation revealed Mr. Kaspirovych had extensive criminal convictions going back to 2010.  These charges arise from an investigation by the OSC’s Criminal Investigations & Prosecutions team, which is part of the Enforcement Division of the OSC. They investigate securities-related frauds, market manipulation, and related misconduct, including the investigation of repeat offenders and those who breach Capital Markets Tribunal or court orders and bans. Their primary objective is to protect investors and further enhance confidence in the Canadian capital markets through effective enforcement. Charges laid under the Securities Act are prosecuted by the OSC. Charges laid under the Criminal Code are prosecuted by the Ministry of the Attorney General. The mandate of the OSC is to provide protection to investors from unfair, improper or fraudulent practices, to foster fair, efficient and competitive capital markets and confidence in the capital markets, to foster capital formation, and to contribute to the stability of the financial system and the reduction of systemic risk. Investors are urged to check the registration of any persons or company offering an investment opportunity and to review the OSC investor materials available at https://www.osc.ca.

The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) has published a Notice and Request for Comment for proposed amendments and changes to National Instrument 52-112 Non-GAAP and Other Financial Measures Disclosure (NI 52-112) and other materials (together, the Proposed Amendments). The Proposed Amendments primarily seek to ensure that measures that have historically been subject to the requirements of NI 52-112 remain subject to its requirements following the adoption of a new International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS®) Accounting Standard, IFRS 18 Presentation and Disclosure in Financial Statements. “The CSA recognizes the need to consider the changes resulting from IFRS 18 as it relates to securities regulation,” said Stan Magidson, CSA Chair and Chair and CEO of the Alberta Securities Commission. “The Proposed Amendments help avoid duplicative disclosure, which minimizes regulatory burden for Canadian issuers.” IFRS 18 will be effective for annual reporting periods beginning on or after January 1, 2027. It requires disclosure of management-defined performance measures in a single note to the financial statements. Without the Proposed Amendments, these measures, which have historically been considered non-GAAP financial measures, would not be subject to the disclosure requirements in NI 52-112 when disclosed outside of the financial statements. To avoid duplicative disclosure, the Proposed Amendments would allow incorporation by reference of certain information to the relevant notes to the financial statements, under certain circumstances. In addition, the Proposed Amendments would introduce a requirement relating to prominence when an additional subtotal is disclosed outside the financial statements. This would promote connectivity with IFRS 18, which requires an additional subtotal presented on the face of a primary financial statement, such as the statement of profit or loss, to be displayed no more prominently than the totals and subtotals required by IFRS Accounting Standards. The comment period will end on February 11, 2026. Details of the proposals are set out in the Notice and Request for Comment, which is available on CSA members’ websites. The CSA, the council of the securities regulators of Canada’s provinces and territories, coordinates and harmonizes regulation for the Canadian capital markets.

The average daily trading volume for the period 09/11 – 13/11 reached JD (11.6) million compared to JD (9.3) million for the last week, a increase of (25.0%). The total trading volume during the week reached JD(58.0) million compared to JD (46.4) million during the last week. Trading a total of (30.9) million shares through (20234) transactions. Financial led the trading with JD(36.92) million or (63.71%) of the total trading volume. The Services followed with a JD(11.23) million or (19.38%). Finally, the Industrial with a JD(9.80) million representing(16.91%) of the total trading volume. The shares price index closed at (3423.0) points, compared to (3338.1) points for the last week, an increase of (2.54%). The Financial index increased by (3.31%), the Services index increased by (0.81%), and the Industrial index increased by (0.73%). The shares of (136) companies were traded, the shares prices of (62) companies rose, and the shares prices of (44) declined. The top five gainers during the week were, the Babelon Investments Co. P.l.c by (25.21%), Jordanian Realestate Company For Development by (14.55%), Al-bilad Securities And Investment by (14.29%), Dar Al Aman For Islamic Finance by (11.90%), and Union Tobacco & Cigarette Industries by (11.76%). The top five losers were, the Jordanian Mutual Funds Management Company by (20.00%), Jordan Insurance by (12.00%), Siniora Food Industries Plc by (9.54%), Jordan Dairy by (9.43%), and Arab Investors Union Co. For Real Estates Developing by (8.33%). Note: The list of the top five gainers or losers may include companies whose reference prices have been adjusted due to actions executed during the summary period. Therefore, the appearance of such companies does not necessarily reflect an actual change in their stock prices.

ICE Mortgage Technology, part of Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE), and Bright MLS, the nation’s largest multiple listing service (MLS), today announced that Bright MLS will integrate ICE’s Paragon Connect MLS platform into its technology ecosystem to support its future growth. Paragon Connect is a mobile-first MLS platform that allows real estate professionals to research, collaborate and manage listings from anywhere. Built on a modern architecture, Paragon Connect offers API integrations, advanced collaboration tools and powerful customization tools that help agents stay competitive. “Our relationship with ICE allows us to expand access to the Bright experience beyond our traditional geographic borders in a way that respects how agents and brokers already work,” said Brian Donnellan, President and CEO of Bright MLS. “We’re committed to innovation that empowers agents, and this is one more way Bright is making the MLS more accessible and useful in a rapidly changing marketplace.” As the next-gen evolution of Paragon MLS, Paragon Connect offers collaboration tools and actionable market analytics from a central, customizable dashboard. With the ability to maintain listings and generate comparative market analyses via browser and mobile app, Paragon Connect allows real estate professionals to manage their business across devices with confidence. “We’re proud to support Bright MLS’s growth with a modern MLS platform designed for how real estate professionals work today,” said Tim Bowler, President of ICE Mortgage Technology. “More than ever, agents and brokers need the flexibility and speed to access high-performing tools from anywhere. Paragon Connect offers exactly that — helping real estate professionals stay connected to homebuyers pursuing the American dream.”

Enables clients to manage international payments, FX conversions, and approvals securely from their mobile device Provides access to real-time rates for 130+ currencies, balances, and transaction tracking Reflects Ebury’s ongoing investment in technology to enhance its global transaction platform Ebury, the leading global fintech specialising in international payments and FX risk management, has launched a brand new mobile app designed to give businesses complete control over their global cash flows - anytime, anywhere. The new app enables clients to manage international payments, foreign exchange conversions, and approvals directly from their mobile devices, providing greater convenience for clients who want to transact on the go. Users can convert and pay in over 130 currencies, check live exchange rates, track transactions in real-time, instantly access their accounts and approve payments in seconds - combining powerful functionality with a seamless, intuitive experience. As of today, the app is available via the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. This latest innovation underlines Ebury’s continued growth and investment in its global technology platform. Founded in London in 2009, Ebury has expanded rapidly to 45+ offices in 30+ markets, employing more than 1,800 experts and supporting over 21,000 clients. Ebury enables businesses to manage international payments and collections, convert over 130 currencies, manage cash flows, and access credit lines - all within a single, integrated platform. Clients also benefit from Ebury’s local expertise and dedicated support teams, ensuring a consistent, high-quality service wherever they operate. Enrique Colin, Chief Product, Technology and Data Officer at Ebury, said: “Our clients are operating in an increasingly fast-moving and unpredictable global economy. They need the freedom to make payments, manage cash flow and monitor their finances on the go, and that’s exactly what the Ebury app delivers. It combines the power of our online platform with the simplicity and speed of a mobile experience, helping business owners achieve their global growth objectives and move money smarter and faster than ever before.” 

BNY acts as first Agent Lender for Cboe Clear Europe's SFT Service, in addition to role as Tri-Party Collateral Agent Milestone achieved as service extends to UCITS clients, utilizing innovative collateral model Expands access to SFT clearing service to key segment of securities lending market Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe: CBOE), the world's leading derivatives and securities exchange network, today announced that Cboe Clear Europe, its pan-European clearing house, has reached a significant step in the development of its Securities Financing Transactions (SFT) clearing service, with BNY, (NYSE: BK), a global financial services company, acting as the service's first Agent Lender. This milestone was achieved with BNY clearing SFTs on behalf of UCITS clients, expanding the service to a key new client segment. Cboe Clear Europe and BNY have worked to launch a new title transfer model with a pledge-back feature, tailored specifically for UCITS clients. This structure enables UCITS - alongside other beneficial owner lenders, such as sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, and central banks - to access the benefits of centrally cleared SFTs without posting margin or contributing to the CCP's default fund when acting as lenders. As a result, UCITS become more attractive counterparties for borrowers using Cboe Clear Europe's service, increasing the amounts of assets on loan, boosting market liquidity and supporting balance sheet efficiency for borrowers in the securities lending space. Vikesh Patel, President, Cboe Clear Europe said: "We are delighted to welcome BNY as the first Agent Lender of our transformative SFT clearing service and extend the model to UCITS clients. This innovation within our SFT cleared offering reinforces our commitment to driving market innovation, transparency, and resilience in financial markets. By leveraging BNY's expertise and Cboe Clear Europe's clearing capabilities, we have created an innovative solution that is designed to enhance market confidence, optimise collateral efficiency, and empower UCITS participants to engage in securities finance with unparalleled levels of security and transparency."  Laide Majiyagbe, Global Head of Liquidity, Financing and Collateral at BNY said: "Working with Cboe Clear Europe on this landmark solution underscores BNY's commitment to driving innovation and client-centricity in the financing and collateral ecosystem. As the world's largest agent lender and the first to go live with a centrally cleared triparty model supporting UCITS-compliant clearing, we are proud to deliver enhanced collateral efficiency and liquidity through our integrated Global Collateral Platform." This milestone builds on Cboe Clear Europe's launch of its SFT clearing service in March, with BNY as Tri-Party Collateral Agent, which is transforming the traditional bilateral process for SFTs in European equities and ETFs into a centrally cleared model. From a capital perspective, the introduction of central clearing to SFTs offers potential substantial capital optimisation opportunities including meaningful reductions in Risk-Weighted Assets (RWA) for certain clearing participants. Additionally, Cboe Clear Europe is leveraging its position as the largest CCP for cash equities to offer cross-product margin offsets between cash equities and SFT trades, unlocking potentially powerful capital efficiencies. BNY serves as one of the Tri-Party Collateral Agents and the service is also integrated with Pirum for trade instruction and lifecycle event processing. With a highly scalable technology platform, Cboe Clear Europe is well-positioned to expand its SFT clearing service to cover other lendable securities and new jurisdictions in the next year. Jan Treuren, Senior Director Product at Cboe Clear Europe, said: "The ability for UCITS clients to use our SFT service is a significant development for both participants and the securities finance market as a whole. We look forward to welcoming more Agent Lenders and their UCITS clients to benefit from the increased utilisation rates this innovative structure will bring. By combining operational automation, potential for capital efficiency, cross-product margining, and robust risk management, we are empowering participants and strengthening the securities lending market infrastructure for the future." To learn more about Cboe Clear Europe's SFT service, visit: clear.cboe.com

LSEG announces it has purchased the following number of its ordinary shares of 679/86 pence each from Citigroup Global Markets Limited ("Citi") on the London Stock Exchange as part of its share buyback programme, as announced on 04 November 2025. Date of purchase: 12 November 2025 Aggregate number of ordinary shares purchased: 207,500 Lowest price paid per share: 8,934.00p Highest price paid per share: 9,250.00p Average price paid per share: 9,096.18p   LSEG intends to cancel all of the purchased shares. Following the cancellation of the repurchased shares, LSEG has 515,608,762 ordinary shares of 679/86 pence each in issue (excluding treasury shares) and holds 24,051,599 of its ordinary shares of 679/86 pence each in treasury. Therefore, the total voting rights in the Company will be 515,608,762. This figure for the total number of voting rights may be used by shareholders (and others with notification obligations) as the denominator for the calculation by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company under the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules. In accordance with Article 5(1)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 (the Market Abuse Regulation) (as such legislation forms part of retained EU law as defined in the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, as implemented, retained, amended, extended, re-enacted or otherwise given effect in the United Kingdom from 1 January 2021 and as amended or supplemented in the United Kingdom thereafter), a full breakdown of the individual purchases by Citi on behalf of the Company as part of the buyback programme can be found at: http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/3224H_1-2025-11-12.pdf This announcement does not constitute, or form part of, an offer or any solicitation of an offer for securities in any jurisdiction. Schedule of Purchases Shares purchased:       207,500 (ISIN: GB00B0SWJX34) Date of purchases:      12 November 2025 Investment firm:         Citi Aggregate information: Venue Volume-weighted average price Aggregated volume Lowest price per share Highest price per share London Stock Exchange 9,096.18 207,500 8,934.00 9,250.00 Turquoise        

Don’t miss ETFGI's 7th Annual ETFGI Global ETFs Insights Summit – Canada on December 9 in Toronto at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG)’s office! See who will be sharing their insights and register today to attend! The day will begin with an opening bell-ringing ceremony with the TMX Group to celebrate 35 years of ETFs in Canada, followed by a full-day of panel discussions featuring industry leaders.The summit is designed as an educational event to foster deep, insightful discussions on the use, due diligence and selection and best trading practices for ETFs by financial advisors and institutional investors in Canada. Explore how regulatory changes are impacting product development including share classes, Active ETFs, conversions Crypto, digital assets and tokenisation and market structure.  SPEAKERS INCLUDE: Greg Benhaim, Executive Vice President of Product and Head of Trading, 3iQ Corp Jean-René Carle-Mossdorf, Head of ETF Product Development, Desjardins Raymond Chan, SVP, Investment Management Division, Ontario Securities Commission Deborah Fuhr, Managing Partner, Founder, ETFGI Valerie Grimba, Director, Head of Global ETF Strategy, RBC Capital Markets Andrea Hallett, Vice President, Portfolio Manager, Mackenzie Investments  Marchello Holditch, Head of Multi-Asset Solutions, BMO Global Asset Management Stephen Hoffman, Managing Director, Exchange Traded Funds, RBC Global Asset Management Pei-Ching Huang, Senior Legal Counsel, Investment Management Division, Ontario Securities Commission Ronald C. Landry, Vice President, Head of Segment Solutions and Canadian ETF Services, CIBC Mellon Graham MacKenzie, Managing Director, Exchange Traded Products, TMX Group Breiffni McCormack, Managing Director, Client Solutions, RBC Investor Services Stephen Paglia, Vice President, Investment Management, Ontario Securities Commission  Lindsay Patrick, Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer, RBC Capital Markets  Grace Pereira, Partner, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP Jeffrey Sardinha, Senior Vice President - Head of ETF Solutions – Americas, State Street Raline Sexton, Director Digital Asset Business Strategy, MarketVector Indexes Whitney Wakeling, Partner, Investment Management,  Borden Ladner Gervais LLP Hail Yang, Director, iShares Strategy, BlackRock Canada Mary Jane Young, Managing Director, Head of CA ETF Trading, TD Securities SESSIONS INCLUDE: Bell Ringing Ceremony with TMX Group Trends in the ETFs Industry - ETFGI Research CSA ETF Consultation Update Update on the Canadian ETF Market Landscape How Regulations are Impacting ETFs and Investors How Investors are Using ETFs Fireside Chat – Managing Career Transitions - In Partnership with Women in ETFs Evolving Life Cycle of ETFs The Rise of Alternative Strategies in the ETF Wrapper The Future of the Asset Management and ETFs industry Don’t miss this opportunity to explore key trends and network with industry leaders driving the future of ETFs. Register now to join us!?Event Date: Tuesday, December 9th⏰Time: Full day event?Location: Borden Ladner Gervais’s office in Toronto?Free Registration: For CFA members, buy-side institutional investors, and financial advisors.  CPD Credits: Earn educational credits?View the agenda, speakers, and topics from last year's successful annual ETFGI Global ETFs Insights Summit - Canada - https://rb.gy/rremx7 Register your interest in attending our 2026 ETFGI Global ETFs Insights Summits: 7th Annual ETFGI Global ETFs Insights Summit Europe & Africa 7h Annual ETFGI Global ETFs Insights Summit, Latin America | May 20 | Mexico City, BIVA 7th Annual ETFGI Global ETFs Insights Summit Asia Pacific 7th Annual ETFGI Global ETFs Insights Summit Middle East / GCC 7th Annual ETFGI Global ETFs Insights Summit United States 8th Annual ETFGI Global ETFs Insights Summit Canada ETFGI (www.ETFGI.com) is a leading independent research and consulting firm which has for over 13 years provided subscription research services providing monthly reports covering trends in the global ETFs ecosystem.  Stay ahead of the curve with ETFGI’s trusted, data-driven insights into the global ETF ecosystem — from active and smart beta strategies to crypto, ESG, and institutional usage.” Contact us if you are interested in subscribing to any of our annual research services. Our reports cover the Global ETFs industry which had 15,125 products, with 29,677 listings, assets of $18.81 trillion, from 915 providers on 81 exchanges in 63 countries at the end of September 2025.ETF TV (www.ETFtv.net) is an on-demand program that highlights newly launched exchange-traded funds, products, and notes, while exploring the most pressing topics shaping the ETF landscape. Each episode brings together leading voices from across the industry—including issuers, investors, benchmark providers, and traders—to discuss the trends and developments influencing the use and management of exchange-traded products.Every show features insightful interviews with key market participants, offering expert perspectives on the issues that matter most to the ETF community. ETF TV also offers the opportunity to create sponsored episodes, allowing partners to collaborate with us in producing custom content tailored to their brand and messaging. Contact us if you are interested in sponsoring or speaking at any of our upcoming events, subscribing to our annual research services or sponsoring an episode of ETF TV or have any questions, please contact us deborah.fuhr@etfgi.com and margareta.hricova@etfgi.com.  

Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: BR) today announced the appointment of Richard Street as Head of International Sales to drive further growth and enhance collaboration across international markets. Richard will be based in London and report to Mike Sleightholme, President of Broadridge International.  “We’re excited to welcome Richard to Broadridge to better help our clients operate, innovate and grow,” said Mike Sleightholme. “His deep expertise across the global investment value chain, combined with his proven leadership in driving sales and client engagement will strengthen our international capabilities and accelerate our growth journey.”  Richard brings extensive experience in sales and relationship management, with a broad knowledge base spanning the sell side, buy side, and securities services. He has held both global and regional leadership roles across Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, and the United States. Prior to joining Broadridge, Richard served as Chief Revenue Officer & Head of Business Development at a portfolio of specialist fintechs, Global Head of Client Coverage at RBC Investor and Treasury Services, and EMEA Head of Investor Services Sales at Citi.  “I am delighted to be joining Broadridge at such a pivotal time in its global growth journey,” said Richard Street. “Broadridge has built a strong reputation across the financial services industry for its trusted expertise and transformative technology. I look forward to collaborating with our international teams to deepen our client relationships, expand our global presence, and continue delivering exceptional value to our clients around the world.”  Richard will lead the execution of Broadridge’s international sales and revenue growth plans. His appointment underscores Broadridge’s commitment to collaboration across international teams and its continued focus on driving innovation and client-centric growth. 

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) today issued a consultation paper proposing a set of Guidelines on AI Risk Management (“Guidelines”) to guide financial institutions on the responsible use of AI in the financial sector. 2 The proposed Guidelines will apply to all financial institutions (FIs) and set out MAS’ supervisory expectations on oversight of AI risk management in FIs, key AI risk management systems, policies and procedures, key AI life cycle controls, as well as capabilities and capacity needed for the use of AI. 3 MAS recognises that AI can be applied to a wide range of use cases, and that the risks associated with different usage of AI may vary based on the scale, scope and business models of FIs. The Guidelines aim to establish a set of expectations that are generally applicable across the financial sector, and may be applied in a proportionate manner - commensurate with the size and nature of FIs’ activities, use of AI, and their risk profiles. The Guidelines will cover different AI applications and technologies, including Generative AI, as well as newer developments such as AI agents.   4 MAS has set out expectations for FIs in the following key areas: Oversight of AI Risk Management. Board and senior management of FIs play a key role in the governance and oversight of AI risk management, including the establishment and implementation of frameworks, structures, policies and processes for AI risk management, and fostering the appropriate risk culture for the use of AI. Key AI Risk Management Systems, Policies and Procedures. To support oversight and risk management of AI use, FIs need to establish clear identification processes for AI usage across the firm, maintain accurate and up-to-date AI inventories, and implement risk materiality assessments that factor impact, complexity and reliance dimensions. AI Life Cycle Controls, Capabilities and Capacities. To manage the risks of AI throughout its lifecycle, FIs should plan for and implement robust controls in key areas such as data management, fairness, transparency and explainability, human oversight, third-party risks, evaluation and testing, monitoring and change management. Such controls should be applied based on their relevance and be proportionate to the assessed risk materiality of AI usage. FIs should also ensure that their capabilities and capacities are adequate for their use of AI. 5 The Guidelines build on MAS’ supervisory thematic review of key banks’ use of AI in 2024, as well as discussions with FIs. 6 Ms Ho Hern Shin, Deputy Managing Director, said, “The proposed Guidelines on AI Risk Management provide financial institutions with clear supervisory expectations to support them in leveraging AI in their operations. These proportionate, risk-based guidelines enable responsible innovation by financial institutions that implement the relevant safeguards to address key AI-related risks.” 7 The public consultation paper is available on MAS’ website here  . MAS invites interested parties to submit their comments on the proposals by 31 January 2026.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) today announced the successful completion of a live trial for settlement of interbank overnight lending transactions using wholesale Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) on the Singapore Dollar Test Network  [1]. SGD Testnet is an operational shared ledger infrastructure that enables financial institutions (FIs) to test the settlement of tokenised financial assets using wholesale CBDC. The trial involved DBS, OCBC, and UOB as participating FIs, and featured the first live issuance of Singapore dollar wholesale CBDC, with transactions recorded in the banks' official books and regulatory filings.2 The SGD Testnet provides three core functionalities for participating FIs: • Common Settlement Asset: Enable the issuance, transfer and redemption of Singapore dollar wholesale CBDC to settle tokenised asset transactions, reducing settlement risk and market fragmentation. • Programmability: Develop and deploy conditional logic associated with counterparty agreements governing payment arrangements to ensure real-time execution of contractual terms based on predefined conditions. • Multi-Asset: Support atomic settlement of both cash and securities components of transactions, eliminating settlement risk that exists when cash and securities settle at different times or through different systems. 3 MAS will build on this CBDC settlement pilot, and plans in a future trial, to issue tokenised MAS Bills to Primary Dealers which will be settled using CBDC. More details of this future trial will be shared in 2026. *** [1] MAS announced on 4 Nov 2024 plans to advance asset tokenisation through commercial networks, market infrastructure development, industry frameworks, and the facilitation of access to common settlement assets.

Good morning, and welcome to Day Two of the Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF).1.  This year we mark our 10th edition. In the first year, we had 11,000 participants and 70 exhibitors. This year, we have upwards of 65,000 participants and 600 exhibitors. The development of the SFF since 2016 parallels the growth in scale and scope of our FinTech ecosystem.2.  I want to acknowledge the contributions of colleagues, past and present, from MAS, GFTN, Constellar and ABS. Especially Ravi Menon who was there at the very start.3.  I also want to thank all of you here. FinTech innovators, forward-thinking FIs and global tech companies. You are at the heart of a dynamic FinTech ecosystem and the reason for the success of the SFF.4.  Over the past 10 years, MAS set out to build an ecosystem where innovation can flourish. We provided support to hundreds of innovation projects and centres. We established the regulatory sandbox and exercised regulatory flexibility to test innovative technology and business models. We recognised the benefits of technology and innovation, and not just the risks. We sought to apply regulation in the right proportion, at the right time, to the right risk. Today, we have a vibrant FinTech sector comprising more than 1,800 FinTech firms in a range of domains.5.  New business models have taken root in our ecosystem and reshaped financial services. Robo advisors have broadened access to wealth management to more retail investors at lower cost. Multi-currency mobile wallets reduced the complexity and costs of cross-border payments. Digital banks and FinTech firms are using data-driven underwriting to give SMEs access to small loans with flexible terms and tenor. And FinTech startups are enhancing efficiency through technology. They are developing AI solutions, from fraud detection to multi-lingual chatbots, that are being used across the financial services industry.6.  We have over 50 Innovation Centres set up by financial institutions (FIs). They drive transformation in user experiences and back-end processes. Our newest FI innovation centre will develop quantum-safe encryption solutions, and work with academia and industry partners to apply quantum technology to benefit financial services.7.  We have also made low-cost digital payments ubiquitous and accessible. Over 90% of businesses, including Singapore’s heartland shops and hawker centres, have adopted PayNow or SGQR.8.  PayNow and QR can now be used outside Singapore – in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and India. More will follow. I was in Bali and had used my Singapore bank app to scan Indonesia’s QRIS QR code to make a payment at small shops. The exchange rate was displayed in my app and the payment was instant. In the next stage of development, we will further improve the customer journey and enhance functionalities.9.  Our expanding FinTech ecosystem has brought new solutions, lower cost, greater convenience and more choice to retail and corporate customers.10.  Now, if we look ahead to the next 10 years, two transformative themes commonly come up. They are AI and Tokenisation.Fostering responsible AI adoption11.  Let me first turn to the topic of AI.12.  We are seeing the momentum of AI adoption and experimentation build up across our financial sector. At a foundational level, FIs are using AI to empower and augment their workforce in general work processes – in information search, retrieval, summarisation, first draft generation, speech to text transcription and translation of multiple languages. AI co-pilots have also been piloted or deployed in a growing number of specialised functions, such as software development, marketing, customer service, client advisory, analysis of financial markets, credit underwriting and fraud detection. An emerging area of application is in the use of autonomous agents in more complex processes. For example, in processing credit applications from underwriting to approval, or administering standard insurance claims end-to-end. There are also projects to develop consumer agents, collecting information and executing transactions. But agentic autonomy must come with sufficient guardrails.13.  The growing adoption of AI portends significant transformation in financial services. Our aim is for our FIs to adopt AI productively and safely, and our workforce to have the skills to use AI. We are doing this on four fronts.14.  First, we are anchoring leading AI competencies in Singapore. More than thirty FIs have established AI competency centres in Singapore, working on solutions that serve not just our local market, but also their global operations. These AI solutions span front-, middle- and back-office functions. We welcome more FIs to anchor AI competencies in Singapore.15.  To support FIs with leading AI capabilities take on more complex challenges, I am pleased to announce a new initiative – BuildFin.ai We will bring together technology providers and research institutes to work with FIs on complex problems of common interest. The aim is to create shared resources and solutions that benefit the ecosystem.16.  MAS and our FI partners have identified our first common problem statement. It turns out Singlish presents a level of complexity that existing LLMs are not fully ready to take on. A*STAR will partner FIs to develop a Voice-to-Text AI model for the financial industry, to transcribe conversations in Singlish and a mix of our commonly spoken languages and dialects. By working together, they can pool their data, develop a better model, and serve customers better.17.  Second, we are supporting FIs which are earlier in their AI adoption journey, with shared resources to start and scale. PathFin.ai is a collaborative initiative with the industry. FIs and tech companies will share their AI adoption experience and successful use cases. The platform curates a library of industry-validated solutions and best practices. Using this shared resource, FIs can reduce time and effort, when they search for and implement effective AI solutions. Some examples of solutions on PathFin.ai include an AI solution to optimise multi-currency cash management for corporate treasuries, and an agentic AI solution for end-to-end insurance claims processing. When we launched the PathFin.ai platform in July this year, we had 20 participating FIs. This number has now grown to over 100. We welcome more participants to join this initiative.18.  Third, let me turn to governance and safety. As AI adoption in the financial industry grows, governance and safety are essential. In fact, one of the key factors determining the pace of AI use, and the extent of AI autonomy permitted in work processes, is the robustness of guardrails and controls over the AI life cycle. FIs have told us that they would like more regulatory clarity.19.  How has MAS responded? We did not run ahead of innovation with prescriptive regulation. More than two years ago, we started an industry consortium called Project MindForge, to create a shared appreciation with the industry on AI risks and governance. The first task was to co-develop an AI risk framework so that there is common understanding of the key risks around AI use. This was published in early 2024.20.  In July this year, I shared that MAS was developing a set of AI supervisory guidelines. Today, MAS will publish the set of Guidelines on AI Risk Management for consultation. The proposed Guidelines set expectations for FIs to identify AI risks and to implement controls across the entire AI life cycle, appropriate to the scale and risk of AI use. The Guidelines will be principles-based rather than prescriptive. It sets up flexible guardrails to enable responsible innovation in a fast-moving space.21.  In parallel, Project MindForge consortium will also be publishing today an AI Risk Management Executive Handbook. This Executive Handbook sets out the key components of good AI risk management. It will be followed with a detailed document containing actionable insights and industry good practices next year, which can serve as a companion guide for FIs implementing the MAS Guidelines.22.  The Guidelines and the Handbook will work together. For example, the Guidelines will require risk materiality assessments, while the Handbook will provide examples of how such assessments are done. These two initiatives constitute our approach towards safe and responsible AI adoption. The Guidelines set out a flexible regulatory framework, while the Handbook can be dynamically updated to stay up-to-date and industry-relevant. 23.  Our fourth plank is to support the upskilling of our financial workforce. Fundamentally, it is people and talent that drive the success of organisations. We want our finance professionals to have the skills to make effective use of AI and manage the risks.24.  We have published a Gen AI Jobs Transformation Map for the financial sector. Here we have identified the impact of Gen AI on key job roles and the upskilling that is needed as these jobs are transformed and augmented by AI.25.  Guided by the Jobs Transformation Map, MAS and the Institute of Banking and Finance are partnering FIs to equip their employees with needed AI literacy and skills.26.  So this is our approach to AI across four fronts. Anchoring leading capabilities; Broadening adoption; Building strong AI governance; and Upskilling an AI-ready workforce. Building a tokenised future27.  Next, I will touch on tokenisation and stablecoins. Please allow me to call tokenised financial assets “asset-backed tokens”.28.  Some market participants tell us that tokenisation may be on the cusp of a take-off, driven by greater regulatory clarity and substantial investment and innovation in this space.29.  MAS started our journey with asset-backed tokens when we launched Project Guardian in 2022. We collaborated with industry partners to test use cases in FX, funds, fixed income, and showed that tokenisation worked and delivered benefits. 24/7 near instant settlement; programmability enabling PvP and DvP; no settlement lags, fewer intermediaries, less pre-funding.30.  Are asset-backed tokens clearly out of the lab? Without a doubt. There have been many commercial products launched. Bonds have been issued natively and settled on chain. Money market funds have been tokenised. Major banks have offered tokenised cash management services to corporate treasuries. So tokenisation has lifted off the ground. But have asset-backed tokens achieved escape velocity? Not yet.31.  Optimists in the industry believe that we are headed for a future where most financial assets will be tokenised, traded and settled on chain. They see a number of benefits. Efficiencies and liquidity in transacting multiple assets on interconnected ledgers. Better optimisation of cash and collateral by corporates and market participants. Fractionalised ownership of financial assets benefiting more retail investors. Smart contracts enabling self-executing contractual processes, like trade finance. All with less time lag, lower cost and potentially lower risk.32.  But getting from now to that future requires significant progress on several fronts. First and foremost, market participants must bring use cases that demonstrate value and stability for their clients. They have to build participation and liquidity.33.  In addition, there are three critical developments that need to happen. First, asset-backed tokens need to be standardised, and networks interoperable. Second, there needs to be a deep pool of safe and reliable settlement assets. Third, institutional-grade networks are needed.34.  Let me start with discussing the need for standardisation and interoperability. For asset-backed tokens to be transacted on a network, they need to be embedded with standardised data and features that every participant on the network can recognise. Right now, banks and innovators are building their own networks and racing to scale. These different networks may have different technical specifications, so asset-backed tokens issued on one network may not be portable to another network, or not without friction. At best, the friction would limit the benefits of transacting on chain. Or worse, we could see a fragmented landscape of sub-scale walled gardens, or even a small number of monopolies posing concentration risks.35.  To avoid these sub-par outcomes, the industry needs to develop and adopt a model of “co-opetition”. Where they cooperate to build a marketplace for asset-backed tokens, while competing to bring products, clients and liquidity to the market. This means that they need to agree on common standards for asset-backed tokens even as they compete to scale. So that a bond token or fund token on one network is understood and accepted by participants of another network. And they need to design their networks to be open and interoperable so that asset-backed tokens issued on one network can be transacted on another.36.  Standardisation and interoperability will mitigate liquidity fragmentation. This is why MAS has been working with a consortium of global policymakers and major FIs to develop standards for tokenisation under Project Guardian. We have published frameworks for funds, bonds and FX as global public goods, and we will do more.37.  Similarly, MAS is working with industry partners and policymakers to promote network interoperability. This is the Global Layer One initiative. We have developed and made available common principles, standards and templates that network builders can adopt for interoperability. We encourage network builders and market participants to work with us to drive standardisation and enable greater interoperability.38.  Second, there needs to be a deep pool of safe and reliable settlement assets. In the established financial system, everyday corporate and retail transactions are settled with commercial bank money. Holders of commercial bank money may convert to central bank money at par. Large value inter-bank transactions are settled with central bank money. This arrangement anchors the singleness of money, and finality of settlement.39.  In a tokenised environment, the concept of money is still at an early stage, and there are a few contenders for safe and reliable settlement assets. They include CBDCs, tokenised bank liabilities, and regulated stablecoins. If tokenised transactions are to scale globally, then these settlement assets must be no less robust and safe. At the current stage, market participants are experimenting with different settlement assets for different use cases. Each will have to demonstrate value through utility and safety.40.  Tokenised bank liabilities benefit from current central bank and regulatory arrangements that underpin value stability and singleness of money. They have been used effectively within a bank’s ecosystem, and now have to demonstrate the agility to be used across multiple banks, networks and applications.41.  There has been a lot of attention on stablecoins. They are offered as open platforms, able to work across many different applications and use cases. While agility is a strength, stability needs to be reinforced.42.  Unregulated stablecoins have a patchy record of keeping their peg. Recurrent de-pegging can erode confidence, and trigger runs on other stablecoins. We saw a similar dynamic in 2008 when money market funds that broke the buck triggered runs on other money market funds. Such unregulated stablecoins would not be suitable as safe settlement assets for large wholesale transactions.43.  Now, regulated stablecoins, while nascent, offer the prospect of value stability. Sound and robust regulation of stablecoins will be critical to underpin their stability. We have seen national regulations taking shape rapidly. This is an important start. But things can take a wrong turn if there is a proliferation of poorly regulated stablecoins, undermining confidence in others.44.  MAS recognises this, and has finalised the features of our stablecoin regulatory regime and will be preparing draft legislation. Under our regime, we have given importance to sound reserve backing and redemption reliability.45.  Over time, if some regulated stablecoins become systemic, regulatory frameworks will need to be strengthened further, cross-border regulatory cooperation enhanced, and access to central bank facilities considered.46.  Eventually, there may be a space for different private settlement assets, operating alongside each other, serving different market needs and use cases, with wholesale CBDCs anchoring the stability of the system.47.  MAS is working with industry partners to explore the use of all three settlement assets. MAS launched the BLOOM initiative to support industry’s experimentation with tokenised bank liabilities and regulated stablecoins for settlement. We welcome FIs, as well as clearing and settlement network operators, to conduct trials under this initiative.48.  In the CBDC space, I am pleased to announce that the three Singapore banks – DBS, OCBC and UOB – have successfully conducted interbank overnight lending transactions, using the first live trial issuance of Singapore dollar wholesale CBDC for settlement. As the next bound, MAS will trial the issuance of tokenised MAS Bills to Primary Dealers and settled with CBDC. We will release more details on this next year.49.  Third, institutional-grade networks are needed. Wholesale token transactions need some foundational attributes from blockchain networks which are not readily available on public permissionless blockchains. Clear governance, secure and reliable performance, predictable and transparent fees, privacy optionality and settlement finality, and regulatory compliance.50.  FIs and innovators are developing solutions to make blockchain networks “institutional-grade”. Some network operators are developing purpose-built private blockchain networks with these features; others are building permissioned and compliance layers on public blockchains.51.  For market participants to gain greater confidence to put tokens and transactions at scale on these networks, they would like more clarity that these arrangements are compliant with regulatory standards. They would also like to see more industry standards develop around operational performance and functionalities, and the ability to verify alignment to core industry and regulatory standards.52.  While many regulators have adopted a technology neutral approach, and regulatory standards apply on the basis of legal and economic substance, there are specificities in tokenisation and blockchain networks that would benefit from more legal and regulatory clarity. Examples may include issues around investor rights, settlement finality and smart contract governance.53.  Taking a step towards providing more regulatory clarity, MAS will be publishing a Guide on the Tokenisation of Capital Markets Products later this week. This Guide will use case studies to provide more clarity about the regulatory treatment of tokenised capital markets products. It also sets out guidance on applicable disclosures. This guidance will be updated as tokenised activities develop.54.  MAS is also working with industry and international counterparts to address gaps or impediments to adoption of asset-backed tokens. One example is the collaboration between the Investment Association of the UK and the Investment Management Association of Singapore, with the support of UK Financial Conduct Authority and MAS. A joint report[1] was published yesterday. It provides actionable steps – in commercial, operational, legal and regulatory areas – for market participants and regulators to help adoption scale. We welcome more collaborations with market participants and regulators to further mature the tokenisation ecosystem and help bridge the adoption gap.55.  Another contribution has been the launch of the GL1 Market Infrastructure Toolkit, under the auspices of the Global Layer One initiative. Network operators and FIs can use this toolkit to assess whether a blockchain network is consistent with internationally recognised regulatory principles like the PFMI[2] and market practices like the DAS CP[3] developed by FMI operators. The toolkit comprise 108 controls derived from these principles. Such verification processes and tools will help build confidence to use compliant blockchain networks.56.  So these are the essential building blocks for asset-backed tokens to scale. Standardised tokens and interoperable networks; Safe and reliable settlement assets; and Institutional-grade networks. Conclusion 57.  Let me conclude by showing you two maps. The first map is of the Mississippi river. It enabled western expansion of the early American settlers, and later enabled the flourishing of industry, agriculture and commerce in the interior of the United States. But it was essential for a system of levees and floodwalls to prevent the Mississippi from bringing flood damage and disruption.58.  AI too can bring benefits across the financial sector and to consumers and businesses. Like floods, uncontrolled AI use can also bring consumer harm and risks to financial stability. So there needs to be governance and guardrails for safe adoption, and training of the workforce to work with AI. This is what we have set out to do in collaboration with the financial industry.59.  The second map is of the Grand Canal in China. This was built to connect China's northern and southern regions. It is not a single Canal, but a set of canals that links various rivers and lakes into one connected system of waterways. This is like the tokenised future that we are building – an interconnected system of standardised asset-backed tokens and interoperable networks – so that liquidity can be pooled rather than fragmented, so that frictional costs are minimised, in cash and collateral management, in investments, and in cross border payments.60.  This tokenised future cannot be built by a single party. It will require collaboration between private and public sector, within and across jurisdictions.61.  Ladies and Gentlemen, the SFF and the Singapore FinTech ecosystem has been a journey of innovation and collaboration. As we build the future of finance with AI and tokenisation, we can only progress by walking this journey of innovation and collaboration together.62.  Thank you all, and I wish you many fruitful encounters and partnerships at SFF 2025.   ***  [1] A joint report titled “Bridging the adoption gap: aligning digital asset offerings with buy-side requirements” by UK Investment Association and Investment Management Association of Singapore, with the support of MAS and the UK Financial Conduct Authority, was published on 12 November 2025.  [2] Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures [3] Digital Asset Securities Control Principles

Transcript from the ASIC Annual Forum 2025 Plenary session 7: The future of capital markets panel, held in Melbourne on 12 - 13 November 2025. Speakers: Simone Constant, Commissioner, ASIC Andrew Fraser, Chair, ART Simon Rothery, CEO, Goldman Sachs Australia and New Zealand Jason Collins, Head of Australia, BlackRock Facilitator: So I’ll start with you, Simone. ASIC’s recent report, Public Private Markets: a Roadmap for Strengthening Market Practices and Regulatory Approaches. Obviously, a new sort of focus really on private credit. Just worth asking you sort of what’s the reaction been to it? What are the, how do you think it’s going to influence the evolution of the markets over the coming years? Simone Constant: I think it’s probably only fair to let my three fellow panellists talk about the reaction. And it’s probably fair for me to make a few remarks while they gather their thoughts as they comment, as the regulator population on their reaction to the regulator. However, in terms of the impact or effects, the sort of shaping, I think, was the nature of the question, I think to answer that, we have to just anchor back in what we did and why we did it. And that’s because just to scotch any confusion, this is not ASIC picking market winners. This is not ASIC trying to be a market maker. It’s not preferring one market over another or overstepping what a regulator should and shouldn’t do. This is just ASIC trying to meet our mandate, right? So by law, we’re required to promote, maintain, facilitate an efficient, effective financial system, and promote confident and informed participation in it. That’s the law. In practice, like many people in this room know better than me, but in my experience, we know that strong, and we heard it all morning, that message, like strong, predictable regulation that’s enforced and enforced fairly and with consistency, is an important regulatory moat for the country. A couple of weeks ago, I was actually with John Lonsdale and Gina in a different conversation with Australian investors who were saying that regulatory moat, not to be anti-competitive, if Gina’s still in the room, but that regulatory moat is a really important feature for Australia for Australia’s competitiveness. And that requires us to be informed and confident in ourselves, right? And to ask the sort of questions we have. And we see that, we see that benefit manifest. The question was asked by James Thompson about what would you like to see in regulation? And something I’d like to see is us better capture the benefits of regulation as well. But you see it, right? When I was close to the balance sheets of a couple of Australia’s largest banks, we saw that not just in good times could we get issuance away with pricing and execution certainty, but actually, our relative performance compared to global peers got better in times of volatility. And we also saw, we saw after the Trump tariff effect, that Australian corporates like Transurban, they were back out issuing globally within days, right? So in volatile times in particular, these sorts of moats in Australia and their dependability are really important for our competitiveness. And at the moment, they’re good times at the moment. We heard this morning, the bulls are running and capital’s flowing back and in between. But it’s important to protect that. So with that what were we trying to achieve? What do we hope will be the impact? Well, we’re trying to operate the way we ask the regulated population to, right? We’re trying to be transparent. So we asked some really meaty questions and we asked them openly. And I was glad to hear that comment this morning about us putting ourselves out there, because we really did. We’ve spent 12 to 18 months publicly asking, are we part of the reason, for example, that public markets are flat? And is that something that’s not competitive for Australia? So that’s transparency. We tried to be, we’ve tried to be accountable. I think we have been accountable. We asked some open questions, which is really uncomfortable for a regulator, but now we’ve been accountable for the answers. And we’ve put together a package of work that’s about that high with those answers. And we’re trying to be consistent. And that consistency was the theme this morning, that good regulation. You heard it from Sarah, that consistency, we will enforce where you need to, you heard it from Joe, you heard it from John, that consistency. We will do, to use Sarah’s words, what we say we will do. And so we’ve given a plan of what that is. And just to round that out, well, what is that? It’s a plan that says, actually, we heard that not that much of what’s going on in public markets being flatter is specifically ASIC or specifically Australia, but you know what, we’re going to be accountable for these things we’re going to do. And there’s a plan around that, some things that we’re going to change that are within our gift. And we’ve said we’ll be accountable for our views on some other things that aren’t in our gift. And invite us into the conversation when folks are ready, and this is probably what we’ll say. We’ve said, we know that financial markets infrastructure is really important, dependability of the ASX and other things. And here’s what we’re going to do. Here’s the panel, we’ve opened ourselves out again transparently to a panel of three eminent Australians, as they were described this week, who will say what they say about what we need to do. And we have that energy. I won’t say nervous energy, which was the word of yesterday, because we’re not nervous, but we have the energy to respond to that with gusto. We heard that, and we’re being accountable for the fact that our data and information fall short of others around the world. And we might talk more about that later. Well, we’ve said, this is what we’re going to do. This is the pilot we’re going to pursue. These are the steps we’re going to take like openly. And then I think on the private market set, I think we’ve been accountable for what we are and aren’t concerned about in private markets. It’s like with super. We’ve called it out, identified it like everyone as being this massive force here. We’ve said what we are and aren’t worried about. We have said that beyond our work on member services or market integrity, we will be balancing our work to ensure we’re paying close attention to them meeting their responsibilities to markets and members, whether it’s disclosure, whether it’s conduct, whether it’s take private transactions, whether it’s financial reporting. In the private markets, more broadly, we’ve said, this is what we are and aren’t worried about. And then within that, you touched on private credit and that’s probably a bigger conversation. But on the private credit side, we continue to say that private markets, private credit, when done well, are really good for the economy and for investors and borrowers. But I do want to be really honest. There are some things that are really not being done well, and we’re really worried. Like that’s why we have absolutely put our back into the private credit space. That’s why when I was asked recently, is this it? I think I was publicly quoted as saying, we are far from done. We’ve announced our next surveillance. You heard this morning when Sarah spoke about the enforcement priorities. A couple of weeks ago, we were asked, why are you ruling out enforcement? I think today we’re very clearly ruling it in. And that’s because with those growth rates, with what we’ve seen, we’re concerned about building on what our expert report said when they looked at what are the sort of practices you’d like to see, building on the 10 principles we’ve laid out. We think that we need to keep pressing into this. This is something we’re worried about, and we will be dependable and consistent in that regard until we see private credit consistently done well. Now, what I would say by the way is, it’s good that you’re going to ask what the reactions are, because that’s a lot of work. We have done a lot of work. We’ve done work with academics, with industry, with panels. A lot of our own work, revealed what we think, used our own surveillance, our own tools. We kind of think we’ve given a really clear plan and you can depend on us to follow it through. But what we would say is, kind of it’s over to business and industry to take it from here. Simon Rothery: Yeah, thanks, Simone. Look, first of all, I’d actually like to commend ASIC on the report and not just because I’m sitting next to Simone. I think it’s a really forward looking report, and I think it’s unprecedented in many ways. The fact that you released a discussion paper, what, over a year ago, you’ve had feedback from 100 market participants, goes I think to what the report outlines and the principles that it puts forward. So I think it’s a great thing for the industry, and we’ll talk about it later, but I think it’s now up to us to make sure that we’re adhering to those principles and benchmarking to the 10 principles. And I think it’s great that it’s principle-based and it’s not re-regulation. And so it gives us a very clear roadmap in terms of private markets, and we can talk about public markets. But I think also that you address public markets and private markets in the same report. Because I think certainly in my 30 years of banking, probably other than the creation of the superannuation industry in this country, I think we are now faced with the biggest structural change in terms of the formation of capital, particularly private capital and what that means for public markets. And it’s profound. And we see it in our business every single day. There’s probably no better example that in January of this year, Goldman Sachs globally announced the formation of a new division called the Capital Solutions Group, a dedicated division that looks at how we raise capital, public or private, for our clients all over the world. And that is driving our business. And it’s something that we need to think about every single day. So I think it comes at a great time. It’s very clear. There’s some, I think, very clear, as I said, principles. And as you said, Simone, in the surveillance report, you saw some good practices and some bad practices. I think the great thing for us, and we strongly believe that private credit and private markets are great for the economy. Private credit sustains businesses that otherwise wouldn’t operate. In the US, it’s a big driver of the economy, it always has been, private equity in particular and now private credit. We see private credit as just, it’s in its infancy. We say in the US, we’re only in the first innings. There’s a long way to go. So to be able to look at this report in Australia as the market is just developing, and to be able to have a framework to put in place, I think positions us really well from a competitiveness perspective. I think investor confidence, both domestically and overseas, investors will look at this and have confidence in private markets, and you’ll raise standards. There’s no question. Assuming people benchmark and you surveil, standards will be increased as a result. So we’re very, very positive about the report. Facilitator: What are your views, Andrew? Andrew Fraser: So substantially in alignment with all of that, and I would make the observation that I think it’s a timely report. There’s a lot of chat in the marketplace about private markets and private credit, and so leaning into that and actually doing the discovery and surfacing the information, and in fact finding out that one of the key issues here is that the information gap was one of the areas to address for the future, I think was really important, and meeting the mandate. I did really love the box of the regulatory strike zone. I think the idea that there’s this target where regulators should try and land the regulation is a pretty cool idea. If you grow up thinking about regulation, that sort of stuff can get you a bit excited. But I would also make the observation that I think one of the important things out of the whole report and out of the conversation is I think we get to reduced binary debates often, especially in Australia. So we’ve had this kind of, private markets are bad and it’s going to be the end of the world, and private credit is particularly evil. And all we need is really good public markets that actively traded and the world will be fine. Well, actually private markets need really good functioning public markets in order to contribute what they can contribute, and there is a role for private markets. And by the way, people have been engaging in private credit for a while now, not just the last five minutes, not just the last 100 years. Old mate’s been learning to old mate a few shekels and a few bob for a few 1,000 years actually. And so there’s a place for that. What I think is really important here is that where we understand what’s the difference for where regulation needs to sit for institutional investors, like Australian Retirement Trust, and where it needs to sit for the retail investor, and making sure that we have that very large distinction in the regulatory setting. So that we’re not having lowest common denominator regulation that doesn’t proportionally fit with what we actually want to see, as we want to see capital formed and flow through the economy. Facilitator: Jason. Jason Collins: Well, it’s a tour de force. I mean, there’s just so much to consume. It covers public markets, private markets, product structures, superannuation, data, and for a lot of market participants, they could look at one component part and have a lot to lean into. And for us, we actually cover all component parts. And so we’re really keen to work with the industry and work with the regulator, and the road forward is going to be really important. I think on public markets, Dr Comerton-Forde wrote some great, great research. I think the commentary around index and the validity of index is really important. The notion that the benchmarking regime, there’s a lot of debate and a lot of work going on on that at the moment. In private markets, it might surprise the people in the room but we have more private market investors in Australia now than we’ve got public market investors. So we invest nearly $40 billion in private markets, in Australia’s capital markets. So we looked at the work there. I think it’s very restricted in one component part to the retail private credit space. We don’t have any evergreen structures here, no wholesale trusts that are marketed to individuals. But we may do in the future. So it’s very instructive for us. On data, I mean, clearly you’ve identified an asymmetry of information between fund managers, investors and regulators. It’s more pervasive definitely in the wealth space. In the super space, I think you identified the people that had direct holdings in private markets. The transparency was very good, but if they’re allocating to third parties, there’s room to grow there, and I think we’ll debate that transparency point later. Facilitator: Good stuff, thank you very much. So what steps are most critical for industry participants in promoting [unintelligible 00:14:23] on that confidence in international investors. What do you think are the most critical steps to get right to promote that consistency and trust? Simon Rothery: Yeah, so I think the next steps, certainly for us are very clear, and I think the great thing out of the report, and I think the phrase line was, ASIC is very supportive of private credit done well. But of the 28 funds that you looked into for the better part of a year, there were some good practices, that there were not so good practices, particularly around fee disclosure, aggressive marketing of products to people who maybe didn’t understand what they were buying. But for us now, the 10 principles are there, and I think every private credit fund in the country, wholesale and retail, and this needs to be done at the fund level, needs to conduct a benchmarking exercise against the 10 principles, and document and report against those 10 principles. We’ve certainly started that process in the private credit funds that we operate in Australia, and I think everybody should be doing that. And I think it’s incumbent upon boards and management to ensure that that happens moving forward because it’s very clear. Facilitator: Yes. Do you have a view, Andrew? Andrew Fraser: So I would agree with that, and I think one of the reasons that it’s timely to do it is the growth of private credit in recent times has come through a fairly benign credit cycle, and so I’d make the observation that it’s pretty easy to lend money. The trick is getting it back. And so I think the idea here that there is an enhanced level of disclosure about where funds are is going to add to the transparency of the market, which can only improve the position for investors and for the economy more generally. I think that is at the retail space rather than the insto space. I don’t have a concern for that sitting here as Australian Retirement Trust Chair. Because our team is there to be able to get to that info, and if they can’t see it, then they shouldn’t invest. That’s a different equation to where retail investors are. I only provide them with one Chair request overlay, which is count the grey hair. And the reason I say that is, if you think about the credit cycle in the last while, then the growth of private credit hasn’t matched a downturn in the credit cycle, and so it’s quite easy, as I said, to let the money out, but the trick is getting it back. So you want to understand the position of the fund, but you also want to understand the experience. Facilitator: Segues nicely in transparency, I think, which is a key thing Jason alluded to before. High quality recurrent data can transform regulatory oversight, but there does seem to be gaps. So I’m presuming that’s going to be where you think you need to see more action. Jason Collins: Yes, so we approach data in two ways in our business. The first is through data collection, and we have a business that was quoted in the report, several reports, which is called Preqin. And essentially Preqin collects private market data. And then we have another business which helps private market fund managers and asset owners, like Australian Retirement Trust, to understand what they own in private markets and to better plan and do risk scenarios around that. On the private market side with data, it’s really complex. Because in public markets you’ve got this disclosure regime and standardisation of reports, and so you’ve got structured data. But in private markets, it’s really unstructured data. So if you’re a private capital manager, you’re going out to your portfolio companies, you’re getting information, you’re then publishing letters to your LPs, limited partners, and so you’re trying to put together the data across, say, 10 portfolio companies across 10 vintages, and the data you’re getting is inconsistent. And so it’s really hard to pull that unstructured data together. So we’ve got a data acquisition team that looks at pulling it together and making sense of it, and providing private market managers with greater insight and regulators also with greater insight. I think if you’re an asset owner or a private capital manager, it’s really easy to understand what you own from the public lens, because you can look at the security level up and you can evaluate the risk that you’ve got. So the idea is to try and understand what you own from the company level up within private market funds. And then if you can understand the cash flow, the leverage, the valuation principles, and you’ve got a set regime, you’re much better placed at the enterprise level to understand exactly what you own across public markets, across private markets, and then you can do an assessment about the risk that you face in certain scenarios. And the sophisticated investors in Australia, the large super funds in particular, the sovereign funds, they’ve got the budget to buy the data, they’ve got the budget to have the workflow systems, and they’ve got this kind of this confluence now of workflow, software, and data working really well. It gets really hard for smaller managers to do that. And so there’s sort of a gradual process. So I’m not surprised there’s been some missteps. Facilitator: Simone. Simone Constant: Yes, I think we have, we look at it from a different dimension and with a different perspective, the data question. Although I’d probably reinforce a couple of things that Jason’s already said. It’s good to hear industry talking about the benefits of data, including us having data, and the way that can help for growth, for investment, and widening access and participation. Because informed investors can participate, right? So sometimes we talk about the concept of convergence of public and private markets, not being too binary, to pick up on Andrew’s point. So I think that’s really important, but it’s better for the market to talk to that. From the regulator perspective, I think it’s good that something that’s just come out then is what we are and aren’t worried about in terms of superannuation, for example. So actually, we should say that we get pretty good data and information about private markets investment when it’s held through APRA-regulated super, for example. And really great work is done within ASIC now to make sure that what is disclosed as well is accurate, and that’s the work on financial reporting and audit that was released a month or two ago, and that’s what’s really important. The whole system is really important for getting those disclosures right. But we do have very mature tools there, just like we have very mature tools, of course, in the public market. ASIC continues to say we want both markets, but there are some advantages, of course, in terms of transparency of the public market. When it comes to private market side, like, I’m just going to own it. We think there’s a gap. And actually, I’m so pleased, like if you asked me my top four parts of the report, top four or five, I’d say that that strike zone, that disclosure strike zone is one of the most powerful pieces of all of the swathe of work. And what’s really interesting is it shows where we sit. And we sit well south, right, of comparable economies and systems. We sit south of Switzerland. Like, OK, so Switzerland’s really beautiful, got lots of great things going for it, and lots of great banks, but it’s admired less for its beautiful disclosure regime and approach to disclosure, I’d have thought, than its geographical features, or maybe some of the banks that originated there, or its Toblerone. So I think the fact we are south of Switzerland in that strike zone, let alone Singapore, let alone Canada, let alone the US and the UK, kind of hammers home when you put it up against the fact private credit’s grown 500% in a decade. Like, once upon a time, that was like a greenfield toll road growth rate or something. Like that’s massive. Put that growth rate, put the risks if we get this wrong and our kind of poorer practices that we’ve seen in the surveillance report, some of our enforcement work is showing that, like the risk of harm, together with the fact that we’re not even in the strike zone, let alone approaching the middle or the sweet spot. We need data. We need to do something. Now, to set everyone’s mind at ease, like I’ve said, we’re going to be transparent, accountable, consistent. We have said, here’s a plan. We’re going to approach this with some rigour. We’re listening to industry. We’ve got a pilot for how we’re going to approach it. But we do need to move on this, and that’s for the sake of system stability, and also knowing what investors are getting in and having that confidence. Facilitator: Is that a concern, Simon, where we’re sitting below in terms of what Simone’s talking about there? Simon Rothery: No, I think it’s very valid, and I think the glaring thing in the report was obviously the lack of data that we’re getting in Australia compared to foreign jurisdictions. And I know that you’re consulting with foreign jurisdictions in terms of how they get the data, and they do have access to a lot of data, but we need a consistent data collection process. I think to Andrew’s point, private credit’s been around since day one, but a big part of our business is private wealth management. Every time I go to see a family office, and there’s a lot of them in Melbourne, they’re all starting private credit operations. Now, how do you collect that data, for example? So I think it’s the key point. Facilitator: Very good. Andrew Fraser: I think the only thing to add into that potentially is I think one of the things that we lose in the debate or the discussion around private credit is it often sits on the other side of private equity. And so the challenge here for us as investors, I think, and for the investment community is, if you’re not seeing the exits in private equity, then you can have really sophisticated valuation models, but actually you can value something. You will know what it’s worth when it’s sold, and so you need the exit pathway to actually inform the market. And I think one of the things that perhaps just hasn’t been as significant feature of the discussion about private credit growth is private equity growth went like that, private credit growth went like that, and we’re not seeing as many exits in the private equity space. And so to my mind, there is an issue there for all of us to think about collectively about what that means, and in fact, the confluence of the two can start to provide a different type of question for us to think about. Facilitator: That’s an interesting point. Jason Collins: I think, just adding onto that, I think in terms of the data and collecting the data, I think is important, but also, and the report touched on this, but it’s also just the consistency of the data. It’s OK getting data on valuations or liquidity or default rates, but actually, is there a consistent methodology across all of the funds? Otherwise, the data’s not that valuable. So I think we really need to ensure that there is a consistent approach, particularly when it comes to things like liquidity to valuation to definitions of default. Simone Constant: Yes, the effective – I mean, just because it’s such an important point, effective disclosure is what we’re talking about, effective disclosure that gives effective transparency. You need some common terms, right? From the fact that it’s still, can’t believe the wide view on what investment grade looks like, through to, in our report, the wide view of what default is, right? Quite a wide view, and we laid that out in a table. You actually need alignment on those things before you can get to that effective disclosure that really supports the transparency we want. And again, it’s for the benefit of both end investor what this disclosure means, through to understanding where Andrew was going, or what happens if there’s a stress event and you’ve got financial engineering and leverage interlinking things? Facilitator: Yeah, very good. So trying to get ahead of that. And I was just going to ask as well, the financial time seeks investors everywhere, but Australia at the moment on private credit seems to be a hot topic, and Asia, Australia and India seem to be places that at least some international investors are looking at. So I guess, does this conversation then frame that for them and improve that confidence? And are you seeing that as well? Perhaps Simon? Are you seeing that sort of international interest in private credit in Australia? Possibly because of growth rates? Simon Rothery: Yeah, absolutely. I think if you look at the numbers in terms of private credit, in terms of investors into the Australian market, I think it’s only roughly 5% super funds. So far, it’s sort of 55% domestic other funds. And then it’s the offshore players. And so, we’ve got BlackRock, we’ve got pretty much every alternative manager, as they call themselves, is setting up an office in Australia. It’s a very attractive market. They’re getting returns, which are probably 1 or 2% higher than they’re getting in the States and Europe at the moment. And that sort of goes back to my initial point. We’re just – I know there’s been a lot of private credit provided and the growth is enormous, 500%, but it’s just the beginning. Facilitator: Are you seeing that as well, Jason? Jason Collins: Yeah, I mean, you’ve got a bank-dominated lending market still in Australia. It’s probably 75, 80% of lending to corporates. In the US, it’s the inverse of that. And following Basel III, you’ve seen it really take off generally around the world. I think there’s further room to grow. I mean, we’ve got a subsidiary business here that was acquired during the last year, which has quite a lot of capital lent out. It’s mainly in the sponsor space. Very different to the private credit that was caught under the surveillance, which is mainly the wholesale space and real estate in focus. But it’s certainly a growing market here. And I think in general in private markets, and if I take it sort of up to the highest level, there’s not enough capital in the world. The demand for capital is so great, it breaks the traditional sources of capital. And traditional sources of capital are banks, governments, and corporates. And governments around the world have huge high debt-to-GDP levels, around 90%. In Australia, it’s a lot better. It’s like 35%. But we’re forecasting deficits for the next 10 years. And banks are originating to hold, but banks will more than likely start to originate to distribute. And private credit firms are really important to take on that credit. So in a world where there’s huge infrastructure investment needed because of AI, transition to a low-carbon economy, regionalisation, demographic trends, in a world where there’s a lot of capital needed, private markets are going to grow. And so this work’s really important, because even though Simone was quoting growth figures over the last decade, our expectation is it continues to grow at a rapid rate. Not at the expense of public markets, by the way. I think both grow quite substantially. Facilitator: Very good. I think we have a question from the floor here. Sorry. Does Australia’s capital market have a regular, a negotiated market, but not OTC, that allows transactions to occur outside regular markets, which could potentially distort the market? How is that supervised? Simone Constant: I think there’s a quick answer to that. It’s a very specific and yet great and open question, in the sense it’s exactly what we’re talking about. We’re literally talking about the difference here between the mature public market and the private market and everything in between, and that convergence. And you can broaden that. People will want to talk about tokenisation. They’ll want to talk about, we have new exchanges here like FCX, so there’s so much in between. But absolutely there are, and what we’re trying to make sure as ASIC is that at least we understand what those changes are. And is this dynamic and change? Is this distortion? Why is it happening? What part do we need to play in it? Simon Rothery: I think one of the big question marks in relation to this question is there’s definitely a negotiated market in private markets. And for example, when somebody is selling an asset in a private market, but may own a similar asset in a public market, and the access to that information in the private market they get. And that obviously comes down to internal controls and Chinese walls. But I think that’s something that you have looked at and probably need to continue to look at. Simone Constant: It’s actually genuinely, I mean, it was interesting to see what everyone’s responses were going to be earlier. But actually getting behind it, the things that folks seem to have been picking up on in themes, it’s really good to hear. I mean, we talked about the disclosure strike zone. I also heard Simon mention those principles. Again, if I gave you my top four or five pages from the hundreds of pages we did, those principles and those poorer practice, and we can spend more time on them later, they’re really important. But also that message that Simon’s just picked up on, that we will continue to be observing where there’s touch points for big fund managers, big superannuation entities, others, where you’re touching public and private. And when we’ve got a rise in private markets where assets are transacting at the 20 plus billion, you’re thinking AirTrunk, you’re thinking airports, for example, that take privates. And actually those investors have public holdings where the valuation might be reverse affected. These days, it’s not just taking a public valuation and thinking about your private, it can go the other way. We are absolutely, we’ve written it down, again, with that being consistent on what we’ll do, we will continue to be supervising, looking closely at those transactions as part of our ongoing market supervision. Facilitator: To guard against that distortion and conflict, I guess. So do you have anything? Andrew Fraser: No. Facilitator: I will go back to you, Andrew, though about superannuation funds coming up more and more in the conversation. What impact will continued growth have on the capital markets? And do you see any difference in perspective as you make your own career transition? Andrew Fraser: So I have one week to go as Australian Retirement Trust Chair. My last public duty is to be accountable at the annual member meeting. So I can’t go the full run up here, but I might go a little way on the run up. I would make a couple of comments. One is, I think when you think of the sweep of time here, I’m old enough to remember when we had a national anxiety about a current account deficit, and the need for a source of domestic capital that would come into the country and help fund business, and the development of the economy in Australia. And then we’ve got one over the last 30 years. And ever since then, we’ve had this massive anxiety about the fact that we got what we wanted. We’re a bit like the dog that chased the bus and then caught the bus here, I think. And so in that observation, I do think that we need to kind of level set on what the report actually said. The growth of superannuation, and concomitant to that, the growth in private markets is a good news story for Australia. And so if I think about that point that Jason just made about, where is the capital going to come from to generate what is needed for the Australian economy, then I think we need to just check ourselves about the idea that it’s sometimes the narrative that superannuation is a big part of the problem. I actually think it’s a big part of the solution. And so is it a problem or a benefit that the register of the ASX 200 has a bunch of superannuation funds that are domiciled here in Australia, that represent Australian residents’ money, that are not going to be taken anywhere else, and are not trading in or out on a kind of daily basis in a substantive way, but are there as the patient capital that underpins the register? My answer to that is, that’s a good thing. That doesn’t mean that the rest of the market can’t be active. That doesn’t mean that that’s a good thing. But I do think we need to just gain a bit of perspective here as in the way that we talk about ourselves, the regulator’s talked about, how do we talk about ourselves? And I think the way that we talk about super in this country at times doesn’t reflect the fact that when you go offshore and you meet people in market, they look at our superannuation system with envy, not with an idea that it’s a massive part of the problem. So what does this mean for the future? It means this; that ultimately the flow that will come into the super sector over time as demography changes is going to be part of our national kit bag. And it doesn’t kind of escape me to make this observation that a lot of commentary in the last year or so has been about the need to have a different or improved or better access relationship with the new American administration for national security reasons, which is fundamentally important, and any nation should talk about this. And a big way that that was achieved was through the presence of Australian superannuation. And so let’s kind of just remember that the team here and the idea of a national sovereignty debate is something that is real in this world. The other side of the discussion that was had yesterday is geopolitical risk is high. And so therefore, what is truly valuable to us as a community, as an economy, as a society, as a sovereign nation? And I’m going to say it’s two things; compulsory voting and superannuation. Facilitator: And obviously there’s been more recently questions in the UK on that front as well. I mean, I think you’re right to highlight the US, but quite recently the UK government also asking these sort of questions, and feeling the presence of Australian super. Andrew Fraser: And same through the neo-Pacific, right? So this is a way that we have to think about the future of this country in a different world. The answer to the challenges put in the last 24 hours are not just about defence assets. They’re about sports diplomacy. They’re about investment diplomacy. They’re about all of those things together. And I, for one, as I think about the way that we think about these things or that we talk about them, I think it’s time for us to level set. Facilitator: What’s your view, Simon, of the role super’s playing in the capital markets? Simon Rothery: I think the superannuation system, I said at the beginning, has fundamentally changed the way that capital is being formed and raised in Australia, and will only continue. Super has outgrown the growth in the equity market. There’s no more room in the ASX for super. It’s got to go offshore or it’s got to go into private markets. And we see that continuing. But we actually see that’s actually a good thing. As Andrew said, I go around the world and I talk about the Australian business that we have, and the superannuation system in Australia is the envy of the world. We’ll outstrip the UK and Canada and become the second biggest pool in, I think, by 2030. And as Jason said, the banks have pulled back from lending, and I think super has a real role to play in public and private markets moving forward. Simone Constant: You’d expect ASIC to just want to add, we’ve been very public. Super is a really positive force and here to stay, structural in markets. And we’re just building that into our work plan and how we approach things. And I really welcome that point about not being binary. Actually, in many ways, Andrew’s been talking today about taking vested interest hats off and not thinking you’re a unicorn, not being binary about things. So it’s from the market’s perspective. But you’ll forgive an ASIC Commissioner for also saying, we’re also really focused on responsibilities of super funds to the members. So for all that this is a markets, capital markets discussion, we are also always conscious every day that the money is there for members, and those responsibilities to members and services need to be as paramount as the responsibilities, of course, to market and market integrity. Facilitator: Absolutely. And just back to, I mean, one thing obviously the consolidation of the super industry has made the bets bigger, right? So that’s opened up a little bit of a gap at the bottom. Family offices have filled that to some extent. Has private credit got to be more active there as well, do you think below that super threshold? Andrew Fraser: I’m happy to jump in with a couple of perspectives. I guess one is, I think one of the things to ask ourselves continually also is, is the growth of private credit also a function of the fact that we’ve got the regulatory settings for the way that banks lend in this country in the sweet spot? And so if at the margin, that credit is going to a private provision when in other jurisdictions, it might be provided through the public banking system, then I think there is a question for us to keep in mind as well. I would probably go a little further than that and say, we need to make sure that in Australia, we don’t just have some really, really, really safe, big building societies. We actually need banks to be out there and providing the credit that supports growth. I think one of the things here when we talk about where is the gap in the market is, we need to make sure that we’ve got enough agility in the market and enough capacity to enter into the market. Whether that’s banking, as John talked about earlier, or whether that’s super for new entrants to provide the competition pressure. And just in referencing the previous regulator discussion, I do want to say this really clearly, which is, I think that our regulators in this country have done historically a very good job. They are a national asset. I think in the last while, they’ve listened to a debate and a discussion about where the regulatory settings are, and they’ve heard it, they’ve played it back, and I don’t think many people go out there and say, actually, well done to APRA, well done to ASIC for listening, but I would on this occasion. I do think it is on the participants next to step up to the plate, to walk through that open door and to walk through and have that discussion. John asked for some earlier examples. I’ve got a couple, but I won’t put them in this panel unless we want to get to that point at the end. Simone Constant: Of risks to private credit, I actually think the risks to private credit are – and by the way, I actually would thank Andrew for the remarks. You don’t often get them, but you can hear – Facilitator: It’s all very friendly here. Simone Constant: Actually, we’ve really put ourselves out there, and this is pleasing to see that you often get a comment on the day something’s released, oh, industry welcomes it. But it’s whether they’re stepping up and into it and actually reading the materials. And you can hear and understanding the points and where the concern’s coming from and that’s travelling through. But risks to private credit, I actually think the risks to private credit in Australia are as much private credit itself, like themselves, the industry itself. You probably expect me to say global contagion and the concerns that we’ve seen in the UK and in the US, and we’re really aware of that. And by the way, even though there’s differences here, and I’ll come to that, we’re very conscious financial engineering and leverage and system interconnectedness, like APRA, John was talking about earlier, it can bring it all together quickly and transmission can happen quickly. That said, I think some of the unique features of Australian private credit are probably, as we’re seeing it at the moment, our areas of concern are the greatest risk to itself. Like the focus on property, our experts found that about 60% of private credit here is in property lending. Property’s great, and Australia is, the market is so much driven by property, but gee, that’s a concentration. And no crisis repeats, I always say that, but yet you need to learn from the crises, and we do know property, and levered property lending can quickly escalate in a crisis. So I think a breadth, and if we get that breadth in terms of the offering and what is being financed, we’ll get a growth of maturity. The growth of maturity will be part in part the data. Like when we get better data collection and have more certainty about what it is, we will be able as regulators, for example, to even more confidently say, when done well, good for economy, good for borrowers, good for investors. And actually we might see more access of private credit, not just to property, but to businesses who want to be productive and want to grow. And I think the third part is just the conduct part. And you’ve heard mentioned today, it was actually really good to hear that Simon mentioned those principles. Those 10 principles we’ve got in the private credit surveillance. Our expectation, I don’t think we said this publicly because I don’t think we felt we needed to, anyone who is in private credit, and actually to a degree even private equity – OK, I know you’re owners, I know it’s different to being a lender, I’ve been both – but some of those principles, they are not rocket science, but they are the law and they are guidance about fair treatment of investors. Transparency and proper governance over valuations, about your right policies when it comes to credit and liquidity management. So those principles, you should be looking at your practices against them, because that’s how you’re going to get that confidence. And by the way, we’re going to be looking, like we’re going to be coming back and coming back to it. And then I think to really shine a light on that and why I say so, I think, like I’ve mentioned parts of the report that I think are really important. And just forgive me, there is a little bit, I rarely do this, but because the words in the report speak so well themselves, I’ve been taking this with me everywhere. So pages 4 and 5 of the Private Credit Surveillance report – that’s why it looks so ratty – but because the team put so much effort into these words to show you what poorer practice looks like, I just want to do it justice and read a few of them. So inconsistent and unclear reporting in terms. Well, what do we mean? We mean that whilst we looked at 28 funds, who were just meant to be representative, not the best, not the worst, by the way, OK, it looked like default range from 0% to 6%, which was Simon’s point about default. You get behind it and the variability and what default means can be anything from you’ve just missed a payment, through to basically you’re in enforcement. OK, is that reliable? No, that does not give confidence. You look at opaque interest margins and fee structures, four of the 28 funds only published information about interest rates and charges charged to borrowers. And only one of the wholesale funds passed on the full economic benefits of the interest earned from its assets and borrower fees. The other end of the spectrum, we saw one manager took a substantial interest margin of 7.5%. Again, with that inconsistency of practice, right? Consistency gives confidence. And just forgive me, two more that are worth talking about. Less than half of the funds had detailed written credit or impairment and default management policies. Pretty important in credit funds. Half of the wholesale funds did not have a policy governing fair allocation of investment opportunities across multiple related funds. And finally, in terms of valuation and liquidity, most funds didn’t have effective separation between their IC that approved the loan and those that are responsible communities for overseeing loan performance and valuations. And only two of the eight wholesale, only two of them, formed stress testing as part of their liquidity risk management. So that’s why we’re concerned, because those practices are concerning. And as I said, it was a representative sample to just think about the industry generally. we’re not specifically saying these funds that were surveilled are the particularly bad or particularly good ones. But when you see those practices, you see those growth rates, we’re sitting here talking about the importance of it to the economy, and then you think about the simplicity of those 10 principles, you can see why I say I actually think domestically the biggest risk to private credit is itself, and whether it seizes the moment to just get the practices consistently good. Facilitator: Do you recognise that, Jason? Jason Collins: That’s a long list. And it’s a very relevant list. And it makes me wonder across the value chain how it comes to being that these practices take place. As I said before, we don’t have any wholesale structures out available in private credit in Australia. And I think the sophisticated investors in the market, whether they be operating at the private advisory level or at the super fund level, are giving out larger sums of money and have a due diligence process which is really extensive. And somewhere along the way, whether it be in the research house regime, whether it be in the platform regime, in the MIS regime, somewhere along the way, some of these practices have evolved, and you kind of look at it and say, well, that’s inconsistent with the policy settings, inconsistent with what we’re trying to achieve as an industry since the Royal Commission, the Productivity Commission. And so I think it’s great work by ASIC to have identified these things. It’s great work, the forward roadmap that’s been put forward. It’s very detailed, and as an industry it would be sensible for everyone to adhere. Facilitator: We skirted around a bit, but public markets. I might turn to you here, Simon, but as a journalist, about once a year we write a story about what’s happening and IPOs, why aren’t there more of them? But my colleagues in other parts of the world write very similar stories sometimes. How do we make IPOs great again? Obviously ASIC’s tried to address this in the report. We’ve got some proposals on the table. What’s it going to take to move the dial on this? Simon Rothery: Yeah, it’s a question, it’s a very good question, it’s a question we’ve been asking ourselves every day for about the last 10 years. I mean, in Australia, the value of the amount of equity raised in the last decade is down 82%, so it is significant. And I think that’s why I made the comments earlier. I think it was fantastic that the report not just focused on private markets, but how do we enhance and support public markets, and particularly public markets’ equity? Because private markets are great and they’re going to keep growing in this country, but to me the public equity market is the foundation of the economy. Without a public market, a transparent and efficient, a liquid public market, that underpins everything. And I think the example that we’ve seen of that in the last decade is the COVID era. Now, if we did not have an efficient functioning public equity market, we raised billions and billions of dollars of capital quickly, ASIC gave relief on certain things in terms of placement thresholds, private markets would not have been there in that timeframe, and businesses would have gone broke. And that’s the value of public markets. So we absolutely have to ensure that we have a public market which is as strong as a private market. And the two can coexist and converge, but public markets are vitally important to this country. The ASIC report referenced the decline of public markets being sort of cyclical and structural. I think a little bit of it is cyclical. There’s certainly been money flowing out of equity markets because of high valuations into private credit. I would probably say that it’s a more structural issue, which I think we need to spend a lot of time on. The IPO process, in terms of your question, it’s about efficiency and speed to market. And the IPO process has been too slow. Particularly in volatile markets, you have a very small listing window after you do all the work. If markets aren’t there, you can’t do the IPO, you lose investor confidence. The fast-track IPO process that ASIC has recommended, I think is very good. It’s going to obviously need consultation with the ASX. Things like promoting dual-track structures, I think will put us on a competitive playing field with offshore. Thinking about disclosure around forecasts and work around that. That makes boards very nervous in terms of the forward forecasts that have to go into an IPO prospectus. Of course, we still have to ensure that investors are going to be as informed as they can be. Sell-side research, research analysts being able to engage with the company, with investment banks, and bankers working on the transactions so that the market again is fully informed. I think they’re all fantastic initiatives, and they will help the speed to market of IPOs, which is part of the problem. I think the second big thing that we need to work on, which I don’t think has been addressed, and what puts most of our clients off IPOing, as opposed to a private transaction, is the ongoing red tape, compliance, governance, and regulatory concerns about being a listed public company. And that’s a massive issue. Most of our clients would prefer not to be public for those reasons. And I think there’s another leg of work to be done in relation to the efficiency and speed to market of IPOs, of actually the framework around being public. Simone Constant: We, ASIC absolutely would agree with that. It’s not our job to pick market winners, and it’s not our job to make IPOs great again. But we are very invested in the idea of healthy public markets for all the reasons we’ve travailed. It’s not just about going on the boards, it’s staying on the boards. So something that did come through really clearly in everything we did, whether it was Professor Carole Comerton-Forde’s work, through to the 100 responses we got, was it’s hard to grow at the moment in Australia as a listed entity. And our Chair spoke beautifully last week about the differences between, what if you’re a smaller biostock trying to raise capital publicly on the listed market? The weight of what you face into – and it’s all there for very good reason. Compare that to, at the moment, wholesale funds which can raise billions and actually not be registered here and not be audited. It’s not for us to necessarily fix that at ASIC. But we did hear that, and we do, again, with that being accountable for what we heard and what we see, we do absolutely acknowledge that. Facilitator: Andrew? Andrew Fraser: I was just going to reinforce the point that Simon made. So I think the IPO pathway and what it takes to IPO is a really important focus, but it’s not the be-all and end-all. I think sometimes this debate turns into the prospectus and the actual IPO is the proposal and the wedding. We need to talk about the marriage. So once you’re there, what does it then take to keep invested in that? And I think that last point is the really important point. It’s get the IPO structure right, absolutely, and get those settings right. But what does it take to stay there is the much larger issue, in my view. Facilitator: That’s interesting. Do you have a view, Jason? Jason Collins: Well, public markets are a great democratiser. I mean, in Australia, we’ve got a really fortunate system with the superannuation system, where working Australians get access to public and private markets, and can generate wealth and store wealth for the future. But without public markets people can’t invest outside of super. It’s a lot harder, because private markets aren’t accessible yet, and Simone’s work and her team’s work is really important to try and open up the private market space. But if you don’t have vibrant public markets that represent the broader economy, it’s really hard for savers to generate wealth outside of their super or house. I think 51% of Australians own shares directly. And as housing gets more expensive, a lot of younger Australians are turning to shares to save money to get their housing deposit. And there’s almost an inverse correlation between home ownership and share ownership, which has emerged since 2021, since COVID. It’s fascinating if you look at the stats, right? So Australia is below the OECD average in terms of home ownership, and really high up on the average on share ownership. So you just need a vibrant public market to make a more equitable society. Facilitator: So how do you, I mean, to Simon’s point, you were just saying a lot of your clients don’t want to go public. And I’m thinking about this as well, because there seems to be a lot of volatility at the moment. Post earnings, obviously valuations, especially in larger cap companies are high, so you do get steam coming out. But if you are large, mid-sized, small, there are going to be different reasons. But how do we encourage more companies to make that step if they don’t seem to want to do it? And there’s capital available elsewhere that doesn’t cause so many headaches. Simon Rothery: Yeah, I mean, there’s a good live example today. There’s a stock on the ASX that’s down 25% because the CEO sold his holdings last week and it was disclosed this morning. Now, there’s a very different regime in terms of director, management, founder, sell-down process, particularly in the US, where it’s a more consistent drip feed. I think we’re probably moving maybe towards that, and looking at that, but they’re those types of issues that scare people and scare investors. And so I think we know what the issues are. We have good dialogue. It’s not just up to ASIC, though. It’s a number of regulators and exchanges, but they’re the types of issues that we need to be thinking about. Simone Constant: And we are continuing to work in the space. Sell-side research was just mentioned by Simon. We’re actually about to be consulting on that because we’ve listened. It came through in this work, it came through in the simplification work. But I think what’s really interesting is all four, we’ve got four very different perspectives here and actually large and significant role. You’ve got the biggest, almost the biggest public and private investor at the end through super and through the investment bank that sees both sides. You can hear the commitment across the system that we need both, right? For that access, for that participation, for the effectiveness of the system. We’ve just got to grasp the challenge. Like the whole point of the last two days has been about dynamism and grasping it. And we’ve got a productivity challenge step into it. We just got to step into it and not be binary. I think maybe Andrew’s is the catchphrase, right? Got to not be binary about this. We want both, we’ve got to pursue both and we’ve got to do it with maturity. Facilitator: Excellent. Well, thank you very much to my panel. It’s a fascinating discussion, obviously very broad ranging, but I really appreciate all your time.

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) today announced new enhancements to the Cross-boundary Wealth Management Connect Pilot Scheme (Cross-boundary WMC) to foster closer communication between participating licensed corporations (Participating LCs) and their clients under the scheme (Note 1).          The SFC has set out in a circular the implementation details of the enhancements for client interaction, with key arrangements including: Participating LCs can now obtain one-off written consent – valid for up to one year – from Southbound Scheme clients (Note 2) who are not physically present in Hong Kong, thereby enabling these LCs to explain product information based on each client’s needs and selected product categories; Upon the request of Southbound Scheme clients, Mainland partner brokers (Note 3) within the same corporate groups as the Participating LCs (Partner Brokers) can arrange online three-party dialogues with the Participating LCs at their respective places of business, where the Participating LCs can explain product information to their clients; With one-off written consent from Southbound Scheme clients, Participating LCs can provide their clients with research reports on individual investment products prepared by their Partner Brokers. The above arrangements also apply to the Northbound Scheme. “These enhancements to the Cross-boundary WMC would enhance client experience with Participating LCs during their interaction,” said Ms Julia Leung, the SFC’s Chief Executive Officer. “With enhanced communication and improved access to information, investors can be better informed when making investment decisions which would support the continuous and sustainable development of the Cross-boundary WMC.” The SFC will continue to work closely with the industry and regulatory authorities to further enhance the Cross-boundary WMC and support its growth as a vital initiative for cross-boundary financial connectivity and development in the Greater Bay Area. Notes: Please see “Circular to Licensed Corporations - Participation in Cross-Boundary Wealth Management Connect Pilot Scheme” published by the SFC on 24 January 2024  for details and relevant Annexes. The Southbound Scheme clients refer to Mainland investors who have opened dedicated investment accounts with the Participating LCs and have opened or designated their personal fund accounts with eligible Mainland brokers as dedicated remittance accounts under the Southbound Scheme, whilst the Northbound Scheme clients refer to Hong Kong investors who have opened dedicated investment accounts with eligible Mainland brokers and have opened dedicated remittance accounts with the Participating LCs under the Northbound Scheme. Mainland partner broker refers to a Mainland broker that has been confirmed by the relevant Mainland regulatory authorities as eligible to provide Cross-boundary WMC services.

FanDuel, the premier online gaming company in North America, part of Flutter Entertainment (NYSE: FLUT, LSE: FLTR), and CME Group (NASDAQ: CME), the world's leading derivatives marketplace, unveiled that they will launch prediction markets through the new FanDuel Predicts app that will expand access to financial markets for millions of customers in the United States.  FanDuel Predicts will launch in December as a standalone mobile application. Subject to appropriate regulatory filings, the app will provide access to sports event contracts across baseball, basketball, football, and hockey. In states where online sports betting is not yet legal, customers who are not on tribal lands will be able to trade event contracts on the outcome of sporting events. As new states legalize online sports betting, FanDuel will cease offering sports event contracts in those states. In addition to sports, event contracts will be offered on benchmarks such as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100, prices of oil and gas, gold, cryptocurrencies, and key economic indicators such as GDP and CPI. FanDuel will extend its industry-leading consumer protection program to the FanDuel Predicts app. The platform will empower customers to trade responsibly with tools to help manage exposure, track spending and make informed trading decisions. Within the app, customers will find educational resources to learn about prediction markets and how to buy and sell event contracts. Customers may set deposit limits and deposit alerts that apply to all FanDuel products and may self-exclude, just as they can on all FanDuel products today. "We can't wait to bring FanDuel's proven approach to product innovation into this dynamic sector," said Amy Howe, CEO at FanDuel. "Our partnership with CME Group allows us to leverage their deep market expertise built over decades while delivering the seamless, accessible and trusted experience our customers expect." "Our new event contracts on benchmarks, economic indicators and now sports will appeal to a new generation of potential participants who are not active in these markets today," said CME Group Chairman & Chief Executive Officer Terry Duffy. "This launch will dramatically expand our distribution and reach, connecting directly with FanDuel's millions of registered U.S. users." When customers sign up for FanDuel Predicts, they will undergo FanDuel's thorough "Know Your Customer" sign up process providing information including their birth date, Social Security number, home address, banking information and a valid ID. Once the account is created, they will then be able to buy or sell event contracts ranging in price from as little as $0.01 to $0.99. About The PartnershipThis groundbreaking alliance combines FanDuel's market-leading customer experience and mobile technology with CME Group's 100+ year expertise in derivatives and risk management, creating a unique platform that bridges entertainment and financial markets. About FanDuelFanDuel Group is America's premier mobile gaming company, consisting of a portfolio of leading brands across mobile wagering including America's #1 Sportsbook FanDuel Sportsbook, its leading iGaming platform FanDuel Casino, the industry leader in horseracing and advance-deposit wagering FanDuel Racing, and its daily fantasy sports product. In addition, FanDuel Group operates FanDuel TV, its broadly distributed linear cable television network, and FanDuel TV+, its leading direct-to-consumer OTT platform. FanDuel Group has a presence across all 50 states with approximately 17 million customers and 25 retail locations. The company is based in New York with offices in Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Jersey City. 

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for that kind introduction and for the invitation to join you today as we continue the conversation about how America will lead the next era of financial innovation. When I spoke recently about American leadership in the digital finance revolution, I described “Project Crypto” as our effort to match the energy of American innovators with a regulatory framework worthy of them. Today, I would like to outline the next step in that journey. At its core, this next step is about basic fairness and common sense as it relates to the application of the federal securities laws to crypto assets and related transactions. In the coming months, I anticipate that the Commission will consider establishing a token taxonomy that is anchored in the longstanding Howey investment contract securities analysis, recognizing that there are limiting principles to our laws and regulations. Much of what I will describe builds upon the pioneering work of the Crypto Task Force that Commissioner Hester Peirce leads. Commissioner Peirce has laid out a framework for coherent, transparent treatment of crypto assets under the federal securities laws, grounded in economic reality rather than in slogans or fear. Let me reiterate that I share her vision. I value her leadership, her hard work, and her perseverance in championing these issues over the years. She and I have a long history of working together. I am very pleased that she agreed to take this task on. I will organize my remarks around three themes: first, the importance of a clear token taxonomy; second, how Howey applies in a way that recognizes the fact that investment contracts can come to an end; and third, what that could mean in practice for innovators, intermediaries, and investors. Before I begin, I would also like to reiterate that while Commission staff diligently drafts amendments to our rules, I wholeheartedly support Congressional endeavors to codify a comprehensive crypto market structure framework into statute. What I envision aligns with legislation currently being considered by Congress and aims to complement, not replace, Congress’s critical work. Commissioner Peirce and I have made it a priority to support Congressional efforts, and we will continue to do so. It has been a pleasure working with Acting Chairman Pham, and I wish President Trump’s nominee for CFTC Chairman, Mike Selig, a smooth and speedy confirmation. Having worked with Mike these past months, I know that we are both dedicated to helping Congress swiftly advance nonpartisan market structure legislation to President Trump’s desk. There is no stronger tool to future-proof against rogue regulators than sound statutory language from Congress. To make my compliance people happy, let me offer the usual disclaimer: my remarks reflect my own views as Chairman and do not necessarily represent the view of my fellow Commissioners or the Commission as a whole. A Decade of Uncertainty If you are tired of hearing the question “Are crypto assets securities?”, I very much sympathize. It is a confounding question because “crypto asset” is not a term defined in the federal securities laws. It is a technological description. It tells you something about how records are kept and value is transferred. But it says little about the legal rights attached to a particular instrument or about the economic reality of a particular transaction, which are key to determining whether something is a security. I believe that most crypto tokens trading today are not themselves securities. Of course, it is possible that a particular token might have been sold as part of an investment contract in a securities offering. That is not a radical statement; it is a straightforward application of the securities laws. The statutes defining securities list familiar instruments like stocks, notes, bonds, and then add a more open-ended category: the “investment contract.” That latter term describes a relationship between parties; it is not an unremovable label attached to an object. It also, unfortunately, was not defined by statute. Investment contracts can be performed and they can expire. They do not last forever simply because the object of an investment contract continues to trade on a blockchain. Yet over the last several years, too many have asserted the view that if a token was ever subject to an investment contract, it would forever be a security. This flawed view extends even further presuming that every subsequent trade, everywhere and always, is a securities transaction. I struggle to reconcile that view with the text of the law, with Supreme Court precedent, or with common sense. Meanwhile, developers, exchanges, custodians, and investors have been trying to navigate in a fog, without SEC guidance, but obstruction. They see tokens that function as payment instruments, governance tools, collectibles, or access keys. They see hybrid designs that do not fit neatly into any existing box. And they see a stance that, for too long, has treated all of these tokens as if they were shares of common stock. That perspective is not sustainable or practicable. It comes with substantial costs, yet little benefit. It is not fair to market participants or to investors, and it is not consistent with the law. It also invites a destructive race to move offshore.  The reality is that if the United States insists on making every on-chain innovation run the through a securities-law minefield, those innovations will migrate to jurisdictions that are more willing to distinguish among different kinds of assets, and more willing to write down the rules in advance. Instead, we are going to do what regulatory agencies are supposed to do. We are going to draw clear lines and explain them in clear terms. Core Principles of Project Crypto Before I walk through how I view the securities laws as applied to crypto tokens and transactions, let me state two basic principles that guide my thinking. First, that a stock is still a stock whether it is a paper certificate, an entry in a DTCC account, or represented by a token on a public blockchain. A bond does not stop being a bond because its payment streams are tracked using smart contracts. Securities, however represented, remain securities. That is the easy part. Second, that economic reality trumps labels. Calling something a “token” or an “NFT” does not exempt it from the current securities laws if it in substance represents a claim on the profits of an enterprise and is offered with the sorts of promises based on the essential efforts of others. Conversely, the fact that a token was once a part of a capital-raising transaction does not magically convert that token into a stock of an operating company. These principles are hardly novel. They are embedded in the Supreme Court’s repeated insistence that we look to the “substance” of a transaction, not its “form,” when deciding whether the securities laws apply. What is new is the scale and speed at which asset types evolve in these new markets. This pace requires us to be nimble in response to market participants’ urgent requests for guidance. A Coherent Token Taxonomy With that backdrop, let me outline my current thinking on the various categories of crypto assets, though please keep in mind that this list is not exhaustive. This framework follows months of roundtables, more than a hundred meetings with market participants, and hundreds of written submissions from the public. First, as contemplated in legislation currently before Congress, “digital commodities,” or “network tokens,” are, in my opinion, not securities. These crypto assets are intrinsically linked to and derive their value from a programmatic operation of a crypto system that is “functional” and “decentralized,” rather than from the expectation of profits arising from the essential managerial efforts of others. Second, “digital collectibles”, in my opinion, are not securities. These crypto assets are designed to be collected and/or used and may represent or convey rights to artwork, music, videos, trading cards, in-game items, or digital representations or references to internet memes, characters, current events, or trends. Purchasers of digital collectibles are not expecting profits from the essential managerial efforts of others. Third, “digital tools”, in my opinion, are not securities. These crypto assets perform a practical function, such as a membership, ticket, credential, title instrument, or identity badge. Purchasers of digital tools are not expecting profits from the essential managerial efforts of others. Fourth, and finally, “tokenized securities” are and will continue to be securities. These crypto assets represent the ownership of a financial instrument enumerated in the definition of “security” that is maintained on a crypto network. Howey, Promises, and Endings Now, while most crypto assets are not themselves securities, crypto assets can be part of or subject to an investment contract. These crypto assets are accompanied by certain representations or promises to undertake essential managerial efforts that satisfy the Howey test. The Howey test, at its core, entails an investment of money in a common enterprise with a reasonable expectation of profits to be derived from the essential managerial efforts of others. A purchaser’s reasonable expectation of profits depends on the issuer’s representations or promises to engage in essential managerial efforts. In my view, these representations or promises must be explicit and unambiguous as to the essential managerial efforts to be undertaken by the issuer. One must then ask, “how can a non-security crypto asset separate from an investment contract?” The simple yet profound answer: the issuer either fulfills the representations or promises, fails to satisfy them, or they otherwise terminate. For context, in the heart of Florida’s rolling hills—land that I know well from my own upbringing—stood the site of William J. Howey’s citrus empire. In the early twentieth century, Howey purchased over 60,000 acres of largely untamed land to plant orange and grapefruit groves in the shadow of his mansion. His company sold tracts of the grove land to individual investors, and then offered to cultivate, harvest, and market the fruit on their behalf. The Supreme Court examined Howey’s arrangement and established the test that would define “investment contract” for generations.[1] But today, Howey’s land tells a different story. The original mansion that he built in 1925, in Lake County, Florida, still stands a century later, hosting weddings and other gatherings, while the citrus groves that once surrounded it are largely gone, replaced by resort grounds, championship golf courses, and residential neighborhoods. It is a good retirement area. It is difficult to imagine anyone standing amid those fairways and cul-de-sacs today and concluding that they constitute a security. And yet, for years, we have watched this same test applied rigidly to digital assets that have undergone transformations just as profound, but still carry the label of their launch as if nothing had changed. The soil surrounding Howey’s mansion itself was never a security. It became subject to one through a particular arrangement—and ceased to be subject to one when that arrangement ended. Of course, all the while, the land remained the same even as the enterprises built upon it changed completely. Commissioner Peirce has rightly observed that while a project’s token launch might initially involve an investment contract, those promises may not remain forever. Networks mature. Code is shipped. Control disperses. The issuer’s role diminishes or disappears. At some point, purchasers are no longer relying on the issuer’s essential managerial efforts, and most tokens now trade without any reasonable expectation that a particular team is still at the helm. In short, a token is no more a security because it was once part of an investment contract transaction than a golf course is a security because it used to be part of a citrus grove investment scheme. Once the investment contract can be understood to have run its course, or expires by its own terms, the token may continue to trade, but those trades are no longer “securities transactions” simply by virtue of the token’s origin story. As many of you know, I am a strong proponent of “super-apps” in finance that allow for the custody and trading of a variety of asset classes within a single regulatory license. I have asked Commission staff to prepare recommendations for the Commission to consider that would allow tokens tied to an investment contract to trade on non-SEC regulated platforms, including those intermediaries registered at the CFTC or through a state regulatory regime. While capital formation should continue to be overseen by the SEC, we should not hamstring innovation and investor choice by requiring the underlying assets to trade in one regulated environment versus another. Importantly, this does not mean that fraud is suddenly acceptable or that the Commission’s interest has waned. Anti-fraud provisions can still apply to misstatements and omissions made in connection with the sale of an investment contract, even when the underlying asset is not itself a security. Of course, to the extent the tokens are commodities in interstate commerce, the CFTC also has anti-fraud and anti-manipulation authority to pursue misconduct in the trading of these assets. What it does mean is that we will align our rules and enforcement with the economic reality that investment contracts can end and networks can stand on their own. Regulation Crypto In the coming months, as contemplated in legislation currently before Congress, I hope that the Commission will also consider a package of exemptions to create a tailored offering regime for crypto assets that are part of or subject to an investment contract. I have asked the staff to prepare recommendations for the Commission’s consideration that facilitate capital formation and accommodate innovation while, at the same time, ensuring investors are protected. By streamlining this process, innovators in the blockchain space can focus their energies on development and user engagement rather than navigating a maze of regulatory uncertainty. Additionally, this approach would cultivate a more inclusive and dynamic ecosystem—one in which smaller and less resource-intensive projects are free to experiment and to thrive. Of course, we will continue to work closely with our counterparts at the CFTC, with the banking regulators, and with Congress to ensure that non-security crypto assets have an appropriate regulatory regime. Our goal is not to expand the SEC’s jurisdiction for its own sake, but to allow capital formation to flourish while ensuring that investors remain protected. We will continue to listen. The Crypto Task Force and Division staff have already convened multiple roundtables and reviewed a vast body of written input. We will need more. We will need feedback from investors, from builders worried about shipping code, and from traditional financial institutions eager to participate in on-chain markets without running afoul of rules written for a paper-based era. Finally, as I mentioned earlier, we will continue to support Congressional efforts to codify a sound market structure framework into statute. While the Commission can provide a rational view under current law, there will always be risk that a future Commission could reverse course. That is why fit-for-purpose legislation is so vital—and why I am pleased to support President Trump’s goal of crypto market structure legislation by year-end.  Integrity, Intelligibility, and the Rule of Law Now, let me be clear about what this framework is not. It is not a promise of lax enforcement at the SEC. Fraud is fraud. While the SEC protects investors from securities fraud, the federal government has a host of other regulatory bodies well equipped to police and protect against illicit conduct. That said, if you raise money by promising to build a network, and then take the proceeds and disappear, you will be hearing from us, and we will pursue you to the full extent of the law. This framework is a commitment to integrity and intelligibility. To the entrepreneur who wants to build here in America and is willing to comply with clear rules, we should offer more than a shrug, a threat, or a subpoena. To the investor trying to discern the difference between buying a tokenized share of stock and buying a collectible in a video game, we should offer more than a web of enforcement actions. Most importantly, this framework is a commitment to humility about the SEC’s own reach. Congress crafted the securities laws to address specific problems—situations in which people part with their money based on promises that depend on the honesty and the competence of others. They were not designed as a universal charter to regulate every novel form of value, digital or otherwise. Contracts, Freedom, and Responsibility Let me end where Commissioner Peirce began her “New Paradigm” remarks in May of this year, with a reminder of our history.[2] She evoked the spirit of an American patriot who took a stand—at great personal risk and in fact, near death—for the principle that free people should not be governed by arbitrary decrees. Our work, thankfully, does not demand that kind of sacrifice. But the principle remains the same. In a free society, the rules that govern economic life should be knowable, reasoned, and appropriately constrained. When we stretch the securities laws beyond their proper scope, when we treat every innovation as presumptively suspect, we stray from that core principle. When we recognize the limits of our authority, when we acknowledge that investment contracts can end and networks can stand on their own merits, we honor it. A reasonable Commission approach to crypto will not by itself decide the fate of the market—or of any particular project. Markets will do that. But it will help to ensure that the United States remains a place where people can experiment and learn, fail and succeed, under rules that are both firm and fair. That is what Project Crypto is about. That is what the Commission should be about. And that is the commitment I make to you today as Chairman: we will not let fear of the future trap us in the past. And we will not forget that behind every token debate, there are real people—entrepreneurs striving to build solutions, workers striving to invest for the future, and Americans striving to share in the prosperity of this country. The Commission’s role is to serve all three. Thank you, and I look forward to continuing this conversation with you in the months ahead.   [1] See SEC v. W. J. Howey Co., 328 U.S. 293, 298-299 (1946). [2] Hester Peirce, New Paradigm: Remarks at SEC Speaks (May 19, 2025), available at: https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/speeches-statements/peirce-remarks-sec-speaks-051925-new-paradigm-remarks-sec-speaks

As an active member of the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS), the European Banking Authority (EBA) is proud to announce the release of the NGFS Declaration on the Economic Cost of Climate Inaction on the occasion of the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belém, Brazil. The declaration underscores the mounting macroeconomic and financial risks of delayed climate action and reaffirms the NGFS’s commitment to supporting a well-managed transition to a low-carbon economy. With this Declaration, the NGFS, a coalition of 146 central banks and financial supervisors and 23 observers from around the world: Highlights the rising economic costs of climate inaction, with material economic and financial risks that have implications for the core mandates of central banks and financial supervisors. Warns that delayed action could halve the effectiveness of transition efforts, with transition costs rising from 0.5% to 1.3% of global GDP by 2030 in the case of a three-year delay. Stresses that climate-related shocks could trigger global spillovers, by disrupting food systems, energy markets and supply chains, resulting in macro-financial instability and disproportionately impacting vulnerable economies. Calls for financial institutions to factor climate and nature-related risks into their strategies and operations, through scenario analysis, climate disclosure standards and transition planning. The Declaration draws on recent NGFS deliverables, such as climate scenarios, which provide tools for central banks and financial supervisors to integrate climate and nature-related risks into their strategies. Through its work, the NGFS shows that addressing climate-related financial risks like any other financial risk benefits both the financial system and the planet. As a member of the NGFS the EBA is committed to contributing to the greening of the financial system. In line with its Roadmap on sustainable finance, the EBA continues to integrate sustainability factors in the EU banking regulation consistently with its broader objective of contributing to the stability and orderly functioning of the financial system. The EBA supports banks’ identification, assessment and management of environment-related financial risk, including through scenario-based methods, as well as effective supervision, by providing guidelines for institutions and their supervisors. It contributes to improved data availability and transparency through specification of climate-related disclosures, and publication of the ESG risk dashboard based on the disclosed data. Finally, the EBA incorporates climate in the assessment of risks in the EU banking sector, including in its stress testing activities. José Manuel Campa, the Chairperson of EBA said: “Financing sustainability and facilitating the needed change is a key opportunity for the EU banking sector. At the same time, we need to ensure that financial risks stemming from ESG factors are well-managed.” François-Louis Michaud, the Executive Director of the EBA further emphasised the role of risk management stating: “Sound environmental risk management is needed as only a robust banking sector can effectively fund the transition towards a sustainable European economy”. Background The Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) was launched at the Paris One Planet Summit on 12 December 2017. It represents a group of central banks and supervisors, which are willing to share best practices and contribute to the development of environment and climate risk management in the financial sector, and to mobilise mainstream finance to support the transition toward a sustainable economy. The NGFS brings together 146 central banks and supervisors and 23 observers. For more details, visit the NGFS website, LinkedIn account, and the EBA 2024 Annual Report. 

DMIST, the Derivatives Market Institute for Standards, announced the publication of its standard on self-match prevention, the latest addition to the globally recognized standards framework designed to enhance market integrity, operational efficiency and regulatory compliance across the exchange-traded derivatives industry. Download the Self-Match Prevention Standard "This standard represents a major milestone for our industry, setting a clear path toward greater efficiency and transparency for on-exchange self-match prevention functionality," said Don Byron, executive director of DMIST. "We are confident that its adoption will empower trading participants and foster continued innovation across the marketplace."  Why Self-Match Prevention Matters  Self-matching – when buy and sell orders with common beneficial ownership are matched – can occur inadvertently and often leads to regulatory scrutiny and fines. The lack of uniformity in SMP tools across exchanges has created operational challenges for brokers and clients. The new DMIST standard addresses these issues by providing a consistent, transparent and flexible approach to SMP and:    Reduces inadvertent wash trades and regulatory risk,  Enables broader and more efficient use of SMP tools,  Improves operational efficiency and supports multi-broker/API access,  Enhances market integrity and orderly trading and  Supports low-latency trading and regulatory compliance.  “The latest DMIST standard introduces a unified and adaptable framework for preventing self-matching, helping brokers and clients avoid compliance issues and streamline their operations, while also promoting fairness and efficiency in fast-paced trading environments,” said Staci Parrish, vice president, global industry operations and execution at DMIST.  What the Standard Delivers  The DMIST SMP standard applies to all exchanges globally, offering a roadmap for those without SMP capabilities. It also offers a benchmark for those seeking to enhance their existing offerings.  Key requirements include:  Registry and management of unique SMP identifiers,  Flexible configuration and granularity for SMP settings,  Transparent documentation of covered products and order types,  No additive latency in SMP deployment and  Clear guidance for trading participants on registration, configuration, and monitoring.