18
Nov
2024

The Investment Association publishes position paper on the automation of IPOs and placing 'Block Trades'

Galina Dimitrova, Director, Investment and Capital Markets at the Investment Association commented: “As major investors in UK businesses, the investment management industry is committed to ensuring the UK remains a globally attractive environment for companies to list, invest and do business. Recent reforms to the UK Listing Rules have made positive changes to attract high-quality companies to list in the UK, while also maintaining good standards of disclosures and transparency. However, IPO and secondary market placements remain one of the few areas in modern capital markets that are still reliant on manual processing to communicate demand.  

“It's high time that this process is modernised. We are therefore calling for buy-side and sell-side collaboration to embrace technological advancements and automate the IPO process. Streamlining the process with electric orders would enhance efficiency, reduce risk and provide greater transparency for end investors. In turn, increased automation could facilitate capital raising and enhance the appeal of UK markets.

“IPO automation will only be a success with collaboration between the buy side and the sell side. By joining forces to modernise market infrastructure, we will ensure that the UK investment management industry can evolve to meet the demands of the future and further enhance the UK’s leadership in capital markets and innovative financial services.”

Read the IA's full position paper here.  

 

 

For further information, please contact:

Helen Ayres, Head of Communications: [email protected]

T: +44 (0)20 7269 4620

Ellen Hodgetts, Communications Manager: [email protected]

T: +44 7548841289

Ismail Abdi, Communications Executive: [email protected]

T: +44 7596 872575

IA Press Office: [email protected]

About the Investment Association (IA):

  • The IA champions UK investment management, supporting British savers, investors and businesses. Our 250 members manage £9.1 trillion of assets and the investment management industry supports 126,400 jobs across the UK.
  • Our mission is to make investment better. Better for clients, so they achieve their financial goals. Better for companies, so they get the capital they need to grow. And better for the economy, so everyone prospers.
  • Our purpose is to ensure investment managers are in the best possible position to:
    • Build people’s resilience to financial adversity
    • Help people achieve their financial aspirations
    • Enable people to maintain a decent standard of living as they grow older
    • Contribute to economic growth through the efficient allocation of capital.
  • The money our members manage is in a wide variety of investment vehicles including authorised investment funds, pension funds and stocks and shares ISAs.
  • The UK is the second largest investment management centre in the world, after the US and manages 37% of all assets managed in Europe.