A new association “Nordic Capital Markets Forum” (NCMF) has been established by members of the Nordic financial community to act as an exchange of knowledge and experience among industry players.

A new association, "Nordic Capital Markets Forum" (NCMF), has been created by Nordic financial community members to provide the Nordic debt capital market with a forum for mutual inspiration and to be an exchange of knowledge and experience for industry players.

The association is comprised of financial players, including investors, regulators, financial advisers and legal experts, and is the first of its kind in the Nordic region.

The association will look at topics such as operational issues, e.g. in the context of the growing use in the Nordic region of financial derivatives, implementation of EU legislation, such as the prospectus directive, as well as investment in hedge funds.

A Nordic Network
”We welcome everyone whose work brings them in contact with the Nordic debt capital markets. Through meetings, lectures, panel discussions and discussion papers by experts within this field, we believe the forum will be of great value to its members", says Anna von Knorring, Deputy Director at the Finnish State Treasury, and member of the Board of the NCMF. 

The pan-Nordic association already has close to 40 active members from 20 different organisations in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark. The association plans to hold member events every three months, which will alternate between the different member countries.

Watch-tower
The ambition is that NCMF will also serve as a sort of regional "watch tower"; looking out over the international capital markets. NCMF plans to have an active web presence with the opportunity to post comments and observations. Through this medium the members can pool together their observations and insights into e.g. new financial product areas, investment strategies and legislative initiatives.

”In the Nordic countries new developments tend to lag behind those of the larger financial markets, such as London. Rather than re-invent the wheel, it is useful to draw on the experiences of the more mature markets and to discuss their applicability and limitations alike in a Nordic context", says Anna von Knorring.

First meeting in June
The first meeting of the association will take place in June this year in Helsinki, hosted by the State Treasury of Finland.

The first meeting of the association will focus on the highly topical issues relating to implementation, on both the national and the institutional level, of the directive on Markets in Financial Instruments (MiFID) in the Nordic countries. Ms Mia Jantunen, who is responsible for pan-Nordic implementation of the MiFID in Nordea, will be the main speaker.

To learn more about the organization, visit www.nordiccapitalmarkets.org