Standards & Publications

A list of all active Standards & Publications:

Scroll down for the full description of each publication type. See our five committees and workstreams here.

Annual Reports

Spotlight Reviews

Standards

Statements of Good Practice

Transparency Drafts

Filter and search all our publications:







Voluntary Carbon Markets: An Overview

Spotlight Review Published on: 29 September 2022

ESG Ratings

Spotlight Review Published on: 20 July 2022

FMSB Annual Report 2021

Annual Report Published on: 30 June 2022

Statement of Good Practice Trading Platform Disclosures

Statement of Good Practice Published on: 28 June 2022. Date of Initial Release: 17 December 2021, Dates of Comment Period: 17 December 2021 to 25 February 2022

Precious Metals Market Post-Trade

Spotlight Review Published on: 17 June 2022

Behaviour-pattern Conduct Analysis (BCA)

Spotlight Review Published on: 30 May 2022

Standard for the Conduct of Participants in LBMA Precious Metal Auctions

Standard Published on: 1 March 2022. Date of Initial Release: 12 Oct 2021, Dates of Comment Period: 12 Oct 2021 to 3 Dec 2021

Standard for the sharing of investor allocation information in the fixed income primary markets

Standard Published on: 15 February 2022. Date of Initial Release: 15 Dec 2020, Dates of Comment Period: 15 Dec 2020 to 16 Mar 2021

Precious Metals Market Structure

Spotlight Review Published on: 18 November 2021

Hybrid working in FICC markets – Future risk management frameworks 

Spotlight Review Published on: 30 September 2021

Standard on use of Term SONIA reference rates

Standard Published on: 28 July 2021. Date of Initial Release: 24 Mar 2021, Dates of Comment Period: 24 Mar 2021 to 28 May 2021

FMSB Annual Report 2020

Annual Report Published on: 2 June 2021

Standard for the execution of Large Trades in FICC markets

Standard Published on: 6 May 2021. Date of Initial Release: 15 December 2020, Dates of Comment Period: 15 December 2020 to 16 March 2021

LIBOR transition: Case studies for navigating conduct risks in back book transition

Spotlight Review Published on: 20 April 2021

Measuring execution quality in FICC markets

Spotlight Review Published on: 7 September 2020

Monitoring FICC markets and the impact of machine learning

Spotlight Review Published on: 3 August 2020

Examining remote working risks in FICC markets

Spotlight Review Published on: 27 July 2020

Examining remote working risks in FICC markets – Risk register

Spotlight Review Published on: 27 July 2020

Statement of Good Practice for Participation in Sovereign and Supranational Auctions in Fixed Income Markets

Statement of Good Practice Published on: 14 July 2020. Date of Initial Release: 02 December 2019, Dates of Comment Period: 02 December 2019 to 27 January 2020

LIBOR transition: Case studies for navigating conduct risks

Spotlight Review Published on: 11 June 2020

The critical role of data management in the financial system

Spotlight Review Published on: 11 May 2020

Emerging themes and challenges in algorithmic trading and machine learning

Spotlight Review Published on: 23 April 2020

FMSB Annual Report 2019

Annual Report Published on: 25 February 2020

Conflicts of Interest Statement of Good Practice

Statement of Good Practice Published on: 14 October 2019. Date of Initial Release: 20 June 2019, Dates of Comment Period: 20 June 2019 to 06 September 2019

Information & Confidentiality for the Fixed Income and Commodities markets Statement of Good Practice

Statement of Good Practice Published on: 3 October 2019. Date of Initial Release: 01 June 2018, Dates of Comment Period: 01 June 2018 to 31 August 2018

Conduct Risk in Market Transactions Statement of Good Practice for FICC Market participants

Statement of Good Practice Published on: 28 March 2019. Date of Initial Release: 27 July 2018, Dates of Comment Period: 27 July 2018 to 26 October 2018

FMSB Annual Report 2018

Annual Report Published on: 18 March 2019

Secondary Market Trading Error Compensation Standard

Standard Published on: 28 January 2019. Date of Initial Release: 20 March 2018, Dates of Comment Period: 20 March 2018 to 20 June 2018

Suspicious Transaction and Order Reporting Statement of Good Practice for FICC Market Participants

Statement of Good Practice Published on: 15 January 2019. Date of Initial Release: 04 May 2018, Dates of Comment Period: 04 May 2018 to 3 August 2018

Database – Market Abuse and Manipulation

Spotlight Review Published on: 27 July 2018

Risk Management Transactions for New Issuance standard for the Fixed Income markets

Standard Published on: 3 July 2018. Date of Initial Release: 25 October 2017, Dates of Comment Period: 25 October 2017 to 20 December 2017

FMSB Annual Report 2017

Annual Report Published on: 20 September 2017

Monitoring of written electronic communications Statement of Good Practice for FICC Market Participants

Statement of Good Practice Published on: 15 September 2017

Front Office Supervision Statement of Good Practice for FICC Market Participants

Statement of Good Practice Published on: 15 September 2017

New Issue Process standard for the Fixed Income markets

Standard Published on: 2 May 2017. Date of Initial Release: 18 November 2016, Dates of Comment Period: 18 November 2016 to 17 January 2017

Statement of Good Practice for FICC Market Participants: Conduct Training

Statement of Good Practice Published on: 8 December 2016

Statement of Good Practice for Surveillance in Foreign Exchange Markets

Statement of Good Practice Published on: 8 December 2016

Binary Options standard for the Commodities markets

Standard Published on: 21 November 2016. Date of Initial Release: 22 July 2016, Dates of Comment Period: 22 July 2016 to 14 October 2016

Reference Price Transactions standard for the Fixed Income markets

Standard Published on: 21 November 2016. Date of Initial Release: 30 June 2016, Dates of Comment Period: 30 June 2016 to 8 September 2016

Retired Publications:

Behaviour Cluster Analysis
Spotlight Review
Date of publication: 27 July 2018. Retired in May 2022.

Misconduct Patterns in Financial Markets – Selected Case Studies
Date of publication: July 2018. Retired in May 2022.

Algorithmic trading in FICC markets Statement of Good Practice for FICC market participants
Statement of Good Practice (Transparency Draft)
Date of Initial Release: 24 Jun 2020, Dates of Comment Period: 24 Jun 2020 to 21 Aug 2020, Retired in March 2021

Annual Reports

The FMSB Annual Report is published annually and sets out progress made by FMSB to enhance standards of behaviour in the wholesale fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) markets.

Spotlight Reviews

Spotlight Reviews encompass a broad range of publications used by FMSB to illuminate important emerging issues in financial markets. Drawing on the insight of members and industry experts, they provide a way for FMSB to surface challenges market participants face and may inform topics for future work. Spotlight Reviews will often include references to existing law, regulation and business practices. However, they do not set or define any new precedents or standards of business practice applicable to market participants.

Standards

FMSB Standards are intended to reduce the continuing uncertainty about acceptable practice in opaque and unregulated areas, which is a hazard for FMSB members (and other market participants). FMSB members are expected to adopt FMSB Standards in their businesses (where relevant) and to evidence this through an annual Statement of Commitment – see Adherence for more information.

Statements of Good Practice

Statements of Good Practice reflect FMSB’s view of what constitutes good or best practice in the areas covered by the Statement of Good Practice in question. FMSB members are expected, and other firms are invited, to consider their own practices in light of relevant Statements of Good Practice and make any changes to such practices that they deem to be appropriate.

Transparency Drafts

All Standards and some Statements of Good Practice are published for feedback as Transparency Drafts. FMSB seeks comment on Transparency Drafts. Please click on the link below or email comments to secretariat@fmsb.com.

Work in Progress:

Standards, Statements of Good Practice and Spotlight Reviews are produced by FMSB’s cross-sectoral committees and working groups, each of which follows a rigorous production and review process.

Information about each of FMSB’s active groups is set out below with an update as at 11 November 2022. For an overview of all activity please see our ‘FMSB Workstreams on a Page’.

Conduct & Ethics

Chair: Tracey McDermott, CBE, Group Head, Conduct, Financial Crimes, Compliance at Standard Chartered 

Live workstreams:

  • Three lines of defence – observations on design, implementation and interactions between first and second lines
  • Training course – introduction to fair and effective wholesale markets

Horizon scanning / potential future areas of focus:

  • Management information on conduct
  • Applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning in wholesale markets – ethical considerations
  • e-Communications and surveillance

Recently completed:

  • Behavioural-pattern conduct analysis
  • Hybrid working – future risk management frameworks

 

Electronic Trading and Technology

Chair: Ciara Quinlan, Head of Principal Electronic Trading for Global Markets, UBS and FMSB Standards Board Member

Live workstreams:

  • Application of model risk requirements to trading algorithms

Horizon scanning / potential future areas of focus:

  • Operational resilience – venue outages and communications with participants
  • Applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning in wholesale markets

Recently completed:

  • Statement of Good Practice promoting consistency of disclosures made by all trading platforms to their participants or prospective participants across FICC asset classes
ESG

Chair: Caroline Haas, Head of Climate and ESG Capital Markets, NatWest Markets

Horizon scanning/potential future areas of focus:

  • Incorporating ESG/net zero transition risks into market risk management frameworks
  • Greenwashing
  • KPIs for sustainability-linked products

Recently completed:

  • ESG ratings – focusing on increasing the transparency of ESG ratings methodologies and data collection processes to promote user understanding, aid comparability across providers and improve trust in ratings.
  • Voluntary Carbon Markets – history, the current landscape and the essential components of a mature VCM ecosystem.
Market Practices

Chair: Charles Bristow, Head of Treasury & Chief Investment Officer,  J.P. Morgan and FMSB Standards Board Member*

Live workstreams:

  • Role of benchmarks, data and transparency in driving confidence in precious metals markets

Horizon scanning/potential future areas of focus:

  • Pre-hedging in an RFQ context
  • Price discovery in illiquid securities
  • Transparency and hidden leverage

Recently completed:

  • Sharing investor allocation information in fixed income primary markets
  • Expected behaviours associated with the execution of Large Trades including focus on pre-hedging
  • Trade settlement and confirmation processes in precious metals markets

* Stepping down. Replacement to be announced

Post-Trade

Chair:  David Hudson, Co-head CIB Digital  and Platform Services, J.P.Morgan

Live workstreams:

  • Non-Economic Trade Data (Chair:Tim McLeod, BlackRock)
  • Uncleared Margin (Chair: Philip Glackin, J.P. Morgan)
  • Client Onboarding (Chair: Siobhan Clarke, Royal London)

Horizon scanning/potential future areas of focus:

  • Consolidated Tape
FMSB Working Group Terms of Reference

FMSB Working Group Terms of Reference – May 2022

How does a typical Standard or Statement of Good Practice progress to publication?