Welcome to The CEO Edit, a new format dedicated to the vision, strategy and stories shaping our work.
In this series, ISLA’s CEO, Ina Budh-Raja shares an unfiltered look at the industry trends, internal milestones and external developments that matter most to our members and wider industry.
January 2026
As the end of January is fast-approaching and having been in the role of ISLA’s new Chief Executive Officer for just over six weeks now, I wanted to share a flavour of what we have been doing since 2026 kicked off. Having previously served as the Association’s Chair and with many years within the securities finance industry, I have seen first-hand the role and value that the Association offers. As CEO, my goal is to ensure that ISLA remains the leading voice for our members, advocating for markets that are efficient, transparent and resilient.
Defining our Strategy
Last week we held our annual ISLA Board Offsite, this year aimed at defining our long-term vision to 2030 and beyond, essentially evaluating how we will drive greater value for members and support the industry as the financial services ecosystem rapidly evolves. Our role at ISLA is to ensure that, amidst these shifts, whether geopolitical, technological, regulatory or simply commercial, the “plumbing” of the financial markets remains robust and that our members have the right toolkit and foundations in place, to face the challenges of, and leverage the opportunities of, this new landscape.
We were pleased to welcome our opening speaker at the offsite, Ben Pott, Managing Director and International Head of Public Policy and Government Affairs at BNY, and are grateful to him for setting the scene on the current geopolitical and policy landscape, highlighting the importance of effective advocacy, at both the regional and global level, at this critical moment, when we are clearly seeing fragmentation and realignment on global trade policy and regulatory rule-book reviews.
We recognise that legal and regulatory uncertainty and fragmentation is often at odds with the pressures on our members to drive efficiencies through global operating models, the need to optimise resources and increasingly move faster and seamlessly, as we look towards 24/7 borderless trading.
It is therefore incumbent on ISLA to double down on advocacy, get ahead of and challenge inadvertent negative consequences of regional regulatory change and to drive positive legal and regulatory outcomes. Outcomes which will provide a robust and certain foundation supporting members’ commercial growth initiatives, supported by market best practice and standards and reputational risk management, whilst also advancing policy-maker objectives, including growth, broader participation, market integrity, liquidity and resilience.
Organisational Changes
With this in mind, with the support of the Board of Directors, I have implemented a revised organisational structure, effective immediately, which establishes 4 key execution pillars, through which ISLA will deliver member value:
- Advocacy, Public Policy & Regulatory Strategy led by Farrah Mahmood
- Events, Content & Communications led by Sejal Amin
- Legal Services led by Tina Baker
- Market Structure, Digital & RegTech led by Adrian Dale
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the ISLA Management Team for their continued support and commitment. I hope you will join me in congratulating Farrah Mahmood on her increased responsibilities and her appointment to the Management Team.
The Brussels Agenda
Earlier this month we attended a series of policy roundtables in Brussels, where we saw representation from many of our member entities, as well as market infrastructure bodies, trade associations and regulators. Of particular note was a discussion led by Tatyana Panova, Head of the Securities Markets Unit at the European Commission – DG FISMA, focused on the EU Market Integration & Supervision Package (MISP), as part of the Savings & Investment Union pillar (SIU). She highlighted three key objectives of the vast MISP package, namely (1) supervisory convergence, (2) infrastructure integration and (3) regulatory simplification, with a deeper dive into key themes including passporting, centralised supervision, post-trade integration and lastly, possible alignment of UK and EU, in particular on transaction reporting.
Given the scope of the MISP package, this is clearly an opportunity for positive advocacy for our industry, and we are well underway with conducting impact analysis, which will drive our advocacy at the EU level over the coming months. We will be engaging with members through the ISLA working groups, as we more clearly define our advocacy strategy and we welcome your active engagement.
Whilst in Brussels, we also had the opportunity to meet with Better Finance, who are focused on retail sector participation in securities lending through neo-brokers or retail aggregators. This was a very constructive conversation fundamentally recognising the benefits of securities lending for underlying investors and for policy growth objectives around financial inclusion, however we all agree that any product, including securities lending, is only viable, if it is conducted properly.
Transparency, robust legal documentation, proper risk management, informed consent, education and financial literacy are key, as is a true understanding by all parties, on how operating models are structured and priced. It was good to find common ground with the team at Better Finance, and we look forward to continued dialogue.
Listening to our Members – ISLA’s Strategic Priorities for 2026
Thank you to all members who recently responded to our 2025 Member Satisfaction Survey. Your feedback is essential to us, as we define our future strategy, and I look forward to meeting with you individually to explore themes in more depth. My focus is to ensure the ISLA roadmap is, as always, aligned to the needs of our members.
Whilst we will share detailed analysis on the survey in the coming weeks, initial feedback indicates that where members are balancing the demands of numerous priorities, they are looking to ISLA to drive legal clarity, regulatory advocacy, for existing products, as well as new markets and they are increasingly seeking certainty on digital advancements, as well as legal frameworks for native digital and tokenised assets and regulatory treatment of crypto assets.
You’ll hear more on our deliverables for the year ahead, but for now, below are some of the key focus areas that will define our work:
- Enhanced Advocacy in a Fragmented Regulatory Landscape: Through our global outreach and advocacy we will support regulatory change, seek to mitigate adverse impacts and aim to secure a robust legal and regulatory foundation for members to execute commercial opportunities.
- Deepening Liquidity in New Markets: Through the GMSLA framework, Netting Opinion service and legal annexes, we will continue to provide and maintain the recognised legal standards for our industry. Driven by member demand, we will be expanding the geographical scope of our netting opinion coverage and will share more detail soon. We will continue advocating for securities lending frameworks in new and emerging markets, with key focus on broader Middle East markets, including Shariah approved lending documentation.
- Building Trust in a DeFi Environment: We will continue to drive industry standards, best practice and legal master documentation, to support both the traditional and the ‘new rails’ as they now converge more rapidly through greater adoption of tokenisation and DLT.
- Broadening Best Practices: With the upcoming implementation of T+1 settlement in UK and EU, impending 10c-1a transaction reporting in US and the evolution of EU digital regulatory reporting regimes, we will consolidate and define industry Best Practices accordingly to support scalability, maintain market integrity and support the transition to a digital environment.
- Market-leading events to foster industry collaboration, education and networking: We will continuously develop our global events offering to provide high quality member experience, forums for networking and business development, as well as industry discussions and learning opportunities. In addition to our annual flagship conference, we continue to hold regional events in the EU, UK, Middle East and support our affiliate, ISLA Americas on US events. Further, we will continue to foster inclusion and talent development for the future of our industry through our established ISLA Connects initiative.
- One Global Advocacy Voice: Since establishing our affiliate entity, ISLA Americas, in 2024, we have seen great support from members and this year we will further strengthen our global alignment to deliver a consistent member experience and increased outputs for members through one global advocacy voice, co-ordinated priorities and shared execution.
Looking Ahead
As I head into the snowstorm engulfing New York City this week, I’m looking forward to attending the ISLA Americas Board Offsite, followed by the first member Briefing of the year on Wednesday 28th Jan and hope to see many of you there.
Looking ahead to warmer months, registration is now open for the 33rd Annual Securities Finance & Collateral Management Conference, being held in Lisbon from 15-18th June 2026. Early bird rates apply and as members know well, this is not an event to be missed.
With January already in the rear view, the 2026 agenda is shaping up to be both intense and dynamic and I look forward to working with the Board, our dedicated team, and all of you, our members, to drive this industry forward.
Ina Budh-Raja
Chief Executive Officer,
ISLA
