The digital transformation of primary bond markets continues to accelerate. An ever-growing number of vendor solutions are coming to the market, targeting different areas of the bond issuance process. A key focus for market participants is the risk of fragmentation resulting from the rapid growth of technology solutions. While some providers compete in particular areas such as bookbuilding or investors’ order submissions, none of the solutions covers the entire front-to-end process. Connecting with different solutions as seamlessly as possible is therefore critical.
ICMA and its primary market constituents have built consensus to represent key bond information. The Bond Data Taxonomy (BDT) provides an agreed language to promote automation and reduce the risk of fragmentation across the issuance process.
Scope: The initial scope has focused on standardising key economic terms of a vanilla bond (eg nominal amounts, denominations, currencies, prices, net proceeds, interest, and interest payment related information), key dates (eg pricing, settlement, issue dates) among other information (eg whether bearer or registered, status of the note, relevant parties, ratings) typically included within a term sheet as the initial use case and scope of work.
The BDT Pack includes machine-readable definitions of key fields, expected values, and relevant ISO elements, as well as examples, a user guide and a key fields reference sheet to support readability.
Download the ICMA Bond Data Taxonomy pack
(last update: 14 March 2022)
The BDT is available to both members and non-members to foster interoperability and adoption.
ICMA will review the Bond Data Taxonomy periodically and expand its scope in line with market developments and member demand. All market constituents are welcome to engage in its development going forward.
Working Group: The objective of the Bond Data Taxonomy (BDT) Working Group, formerly referred to as the Common Data Dictionary (CDD) Working Group, is to promote straight-through-processing (STP) and interoperability in primary bond markets. The group is open to all ICMA members and represents a broad constituency from banks, investors, issuers, market infrastructures, law firms and vendor firms. The group may also invite guests and observers to attend meetings.
Please contact us if you would like to join.
List of participants: Agora DCM, Allen & Overy, Arteria AI, AXA IM, Baker & McKenzie, Barclays, BlackRock, Bloomberg, BNP Paribas, BNY Mellon, Bond Auction, Citi, Clifford Chance, Covalent Capital, Danske Bank, DBS Bank, Dealogic, Deutsche Börse / ClearStream, DirectBooks, DTCC, Euroclear, European Stability Mechanism (ESM), First Abu Dhabi Bank (PJSC), Goldman Sachs, Hong Kong Exchange, HSBC, IHS Markit (S&P Global), Inveztor, KfW, King & Wood Mallesons, Linklaters, LSEG Flow, Luxembourg Stock Exchange, MTS Markets, Nasdaq, NatWest Markets, Norton Rose Fulbright, NowCM, Origin Markets, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation, RBC, Refinitiv, SG Forge, Singapore Exchange, SIX Digital Exchange, SIX Swiss Exchange, Société Générale, Standard Chartered, UBS, Union Investment, World Bank.
See also:
Common data dictionary for primary bond markets, Q4 2022
Common data dictionary for primary bond markets, Q3 2022
Common data dictionary for primary bond markets, Q2 2022
Contacts:
Georgina Jarratt
Managing Director, Head of FinTech and Digitalisation
Direct line: +44 20 7213 0348
Gabriel Callsen
Director, FinTech and Digitalisation; Secretary to the ICMA FinTech Advisory Committee (FinAC)
Direct line: +44 20 7213 0334
Rowan Varrall
Associate, FinTech and Digitalisation
Direct line: +44 20 7213 0317
