Across each evolution of global capital markets, trust has been the cornerstone upon which efficient and robust capital markets rest. Regulatory frameworks play an essential role in maintaining this trust, setting clear, consistent rules that protect stakeholders and meet the objectives of policymakers worldwide. Effective regulation balances growth and innovation with market integrity, consumer protection, systemic stability, and overall safety. The emergence and rapid maturation of distributed ledger technology (“DLT”) and digital assets are driving a transformational shift in capital markets – demanding proactive collaboration from market participants and regulators to ensure these assets and their infrastructure build on the existing protections of traditional financial instruments. This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the practical applications, opportunities, and challenges posed by DLT and tokenization in global capital markets. It evaluates the implications of digital securities across the entire securities lifecycle, offering insights into at-scale use cases such as collateral management, fixed-income issuance, and fund tokenization. The analysis further addresses critical operational risks, such as cybersecurity, smart contract reliability, and settlement finality, and outlines clear risk mitigation strategies, affirming that institutional-grade risk management frameworks are both robust and adaptable to these innovations.

On 17 January 2025, the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) came into effect, signifying a major step up for risk management within financial services across Europe. The obligations under DORA, while directed at financial entities (FEs), have important implications for the third-parties that provide information and communications technology services to the sector, many of which are not based within the EU. In this thought leadership piece, AFME and Murex identify several areas where tech providers can support the effective implementation of DORA, including through collaborative approaches in partnership with the financial sector. The proposals reflect the experiences of AFME members from the ongoing implementation of DORA but should not be construed as formal endorsement. Rather, the proposed avenues expose potential areas for future discussion and further exploration. In certain cases, the proposals represent longer term goals which would require an amendment to DORA’s legal text. The paper incorporates the views of Murex, a software provider with market exposure in trading, operations and risk management. This includes drawing on the insights of the Murex CISO, Thibaut Bachelier, who presented to the AFME Technology & Operations Committee at its annual Paris meeting on 30 April 2025.

The Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME), in collaboration with PwC Strategy&, has today published a comprehensive report analysing the state of European equity markets. Drawing on new quantitative data and insights from over 40 interviews with key market participants across the equity value chain, the report offers a detailed assessment of the current strengths and persistent challenges facing Europe’s equity markets. The research reveals a mixed picture. While recent reforms and steady market performance suggest some cause for optimism, deeper structural issues continue to weigh on Europe’s global competitiveness. The report identifies increasing investor participation as critical to Europe’s growth and competitiveness and recommends targeted interventions to simplify the regulatory framework and reduce the complexity of the ecosystem to support this.

The High-Level Roadmap is a significant step forward on the EU’s journey to T+1. The report sets out the key recommendations for the marketwide technical and operational changes necessary to deliver T+1 in October 2027, and we hope will be a valuable resource for industry participants’ project planning.

AFME has today published proposals in areas key to further scaling of DLT-based capital markets. These include implementation proposals for the , as well as ways in which DLT-based securities could be made eligible as collateral in central bank credit operations . Both the ability to settle DLT transactions in central bank money and to use DLT-based securities as eligible collateral are key to building liquidity and attractiveness of DLT-based markets.

AFME is pleased to partner with Linklaters in helping financial institutions navigate and implement regulatory requirementsas it relates to MiFIR/D II.Our updated publication builds on our first issue, which we published in October 2024, andcovers key developments in secondary capital markets in both the EU and UK from October 2024 to March 2025. We have analysed the key interpretation and implementation issues related to areas suchas market structure, transparency, market data, consolidated tape, execution of client order, transaction reporting and investment research. Our guide is primarily written for sell side firms operating in wholesale secondary markets, however, it will be of wider interest to other market participants.

AFME is pleased to announce the release of the latest edition of the European Primary Dealers Handbook. This comprehensive resource is designed to serve as a critical reference for participants in the European government bond markets, including dealers, brokers, debt management offices (DMOs), investors, and policymakers as well as journalists and academics. The Primary Dealers Handbookprovides an in-depth overview of the infrastructure and organisation of both the primary and secondary government bond markets across 20 European countries as well as the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). It outlines the organisation of the primary dealer systems in each country and the essential roles of primary dealers who provide liquidity and stability in these markets. The updated edition features revised content that reflects the most recent developments in market structures, regulatory frameworks, and policies affecting the European debt markets. Since its initial publication in 2008, the Handbook has been widely regarded as an invaluable tool for market participants and stakeholders. "We are committed to providing the most relevant and comprehensive information to those interested in the European government bond markets," said Victoria Webster, Managing Director at AFME. "This update to the Primary Dealers Handbookaims to provide market participants access to essential knowledge to navigate the evolving landscape of European debt markets." The new edition of the European Primary Dealers Handbookis available for download from the AFME website. For more information and to subscribe for updates, please visit AFME's website. *New chapter added March 2025

AFME and PwC have collaborated on a new report focused on Interest Rate Risk in the Banking Book (IRRBB), offering a comprehensive overview and expert insights into key areas of market and regulatory evolution in this increasingly critical domain. The report delves into crucial aspects, such as the balance required by banks between economic value and earnings-based measures. It also explores perspectives on enhancing standardisation within a Pillar 2 framework, alongside examining the interaction between IRRBB andCredit Spread Risk in the Banking Book(CSRBB).

This report is part of the European Benchmarking Exercise, a market-led initiative organised by AFME, EDW and TSI, and contains results from H1-2024. Its purpose is to highlight the quality and usefulness of disclosure in the European private cash securitisation market, both ABCP and balance-sheet financed, in order to assist market participants and reassure supervisors of the high standards of transparency that can be achieved in this market. CLOs, synthetic securitisations and public ABS are not in scope. It provides aggregated, transaction-level data gathered on a voluntary basis from 12 banks (BayernLB, BNP Paribas, Commerzbank, Credit Agricole, DZ Bank, Helaba, HSBC, ING, LBBW, Natixis, RBI and UniCredit) across 6 countries (Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and the UK). The report shows that non-public securitisation markets are an important source of financing for the real economy. The overall private securitisation market is currently estimated at €232bn of total commitments, with the exercise-related dataset covering €79bn of those commitments. Private securitisations backed by trade receivables and auto loans/leases make up around 74% of the market, and if consumer loans and equipment leasing are included, the 4 asset classestogetherrepresent 88% of the market. This is the seventh in a series of such reports to be published biannually over time.

This paper provides a comprehensive view of the continuing rise in FI data costs since publication of our last such report, published in February 2022. We look again at the scale of the overall spend increase, what individual components are the main drivers of this increase as well as changes in the pace of increases of individual components and how these have impacted on the profile of overall spend. As previously, we have broken down the overall spend into 8 categories (terminals, pricing and reference data, exchange fees, research and analytics, data feeds, indices, ratings and other) from 6 types of providers (exchanges, MTFs, data vendors, brokers, ratings agencies, and index providers). In aggregate, the most notable, and concerning, aspect of the updated figures is that the characteristics and trends identified previously have persisted and, in some cases, actually accelerated. We find this to be particularly concerning in light of the position taken by the FCA in their wholesale market data study, published in February 2024, that ruled out making any significant intervention in the market. This was despite finding that competition was not working well in some areas and that, as a consequence, users may be paying higher prices than they would if competition “was working more effectively”. Across the sell side, growth in spend on overall (cross-market) market data actually accelerated. Costs grew by 25% between 2017 and 2021, a CAGR of 5.74%. Over 2022 and 2023 the annual rate of increase accelerated to 7.33% and reached an index value of 144 – a rise of 44% over 6 years. Looking at FI market data specifically, growth in spend continued to outpace the rate of growth in spend for overall market data, albeit with a smaller differential. Over the periods 2017-21 and 2022-23, FI spend increased at a CAGR of 10.7% and 7.7% respectively against increases in overall spend of 5.7% and 7.3% over the same periods. Separately, looking at growth in FI data spend vs growth in user numbers, again, growth in spend significantly outpaced growth in user numbers. Notwithstanding likely growth in usage per user, this metric suggests a continued increase in unit price. As noted above, over 2017-21 and 2022-23, annual growth in spend was 10.7% and 7.7% respectively whilst growth in users over the 2 periods was only 3.6% and 6.3%. Turning to individual spend components within the overall picture, the relative sizes of spend between components was broadly similar across the 2 periods. Some notable changes between the 2 periods were evidenced by a significant proportional increase in data feeds costs as well as a proportional decrease in spend on indices. Within this overall picture however were a number of eye-catching spend increases on individual components. Over the full 6 year period analysed, the most notable of these were Research & Analytics (110%), Ratings (75%) and Indices (57%).