With 680 attendees, over 50 speakers and 3 full days of panels, keynotes and discussions, the conference covered a wide-range of themes impacting the industry.
Here are our 6 key takeaways from this year’s conference:
1) As the Market Grows, so Must its Foundations
The data is clear, our market is in a period of remarkable growth. Activity is broadening across regions and asset classes, and as a more diverse range of participants enters the space, the demand for tailored liquidity solutions is deepening.
As the market grows and becomes more interconnected, the need for robust legal, operational and infrastructure foundations become even more critical. Fragmentation, complexity and inconsistent processes continue to create friction, and legacy structures are increasingly under pressure to keep pace with modern market needs.
For ISLA this reinforces a central priority: to support a more efficient, resilient and scalable market through practical standards, clear legal frameworks and coordinated engagement across jurisdictions. Through our working groups including the T+1 Working Group, the recently launched Saudi Arabia Operations Sub-Group and Advocacy & Public Policy Committee, we work with our members to define the needs of the market and develop positions to support our global advocacy efforts.
2) Capital Efficiency Remains Central
Capital efficiency continues to be one of the defining issues for our members. Across the discussions in Lisbon, there was a clear recognition that balance sheet pressure, capital requirements and regulatory uncertainty remain major constraints on efficiency and liquidity.
Despite challenges, the market is not short of solutions and innovation. The Capital Efficiency panel highlighted pledge, central clearing, collateral optimisation, netting benefits and other capital-efficient models as complementary tools that can help firms manage resources more effectively, with a recognition that these solutions are part of a wider toolkit, where firms are taking a holistic view of capital efficiency.
For the market to support liquidity, maintain resilience and continue to serve the wider financial system well, prudential frameworks need to be proportionate, predictable and aligned with how the market works in practice. This position has been echoed in a number of recent ISLA publications, including our Basel 3: Securitise Finance Toolkit, as well as our recent response to the US NPR in partnership with ICMA.
3) T+1 is Reshaping Market Operations
As highlighted in the T+1 Thematic Discussion, the move to accelerated settlement is changing the way the market functions from end to end. It is not simply a technical or operational shift, it is one that affects trading behaviours, liquidity and inventory management, impacting recalls, collateral movement, funding, cut-off times and cross-border coordination.
The session made clear that success in a T+1 environment depends on the entire value chain being ready. All participants from lenders, borrowers, custodians, tri-party agents, vendors and asset managers need to be aligned to avoid friction and manage risk effectively.
Speakers also highlighted the importance of operational discipline and cleaner data to allow for faster decision-making and more joined-up processes, where manual workflows and fragmented legacy systems become harder to sustain. Automation, built to reflect consistent industry standards, will be vital to a successful transition.
From high-level advocacy and regulatory engagement to practical, operational implementation, ISLA has been working hard to prepare the securities finance industry for the transition to T+1. Led by Tony Holland, ISLA is an active participant on the UK Accelerated Settlement Taskforce as well as the EU Technical Workstream, ensuring the voice of the securities finance industry is heard.
4) Digital Assets & Tokenisation are Moving into Real-World Use
Lisbon highlighted that the discussion on tokenisation and digital market infrastructure has clearly shifted from theoretical to practical implementation, interoperability and scale.
The panel agreed that digital assets use-cases for the Securities Finance industry will only be scalable if the full lifecycle is connected: issuance, custody, settlement, collateral, financing and secondary trading all need to form part of a coherent ecosystem for digital assets, otherwise a “walled gardens” approach will develop, rather than an interoperable landscape. Common standards, cross-platform connectivity and strong governance models are essential building blocks.
There was also a strong recognition that innovation must be matched by robust control processes. The industry is clearly committed to the progression of these technologies, but it cannot come at the expense of risk management or resilience. For tokenisation to become commercially scalable, digital assets will need to evolve based on traditional market risk, legal and regulatory standards.
At ISLA our digital agenda is focused on driving 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.
Looking ahead, ISLA will expand standardised legal documentation for digital securities and related market structures, building on the Digital Assets Annex and the Digital Bonds Annex already published to support member demand. In parallel, we will continue advancing interoperability through market standards and the Common Domain Model, so digital and traditional securities finance workflows do not fragment.
5) AI is Becoming Part of the Workflow
Artificial intelligence is moving from the side-lines into the operational core of the market. The conversations in Lisbon reflected on how AI is improving workflow, decision-making, productivity and efficiency across securities finance, though the discussions also recognised that AI brings certain risks and needs suitable guardrails.
Firms need clear accountability, strong governance and systems designed to operate reliably from day one. It was generally agreed that the ‘human in the loop’ concept is no longer suitable and instead, the market needs to carefully evaluate the level of human oversight needed to manage risk, given that the issue is no longer whether AI can improve workflow, but how it should be deployed responsibly in a regulated environment, with sufficient oversight and circuit-breakers.
6) New Liquidity sources are Changing the Market
New and diverse liquidity pools continue to grow in importance. Retail participation, developing markets and alternative forms of supply are increasingly part of the market’s core conversation, creating broader opportunities for borrowers and lenders alike. With these opportunities, come new operational, regulatory and investor-protection requirements. Consent, transparency, local market rules and execution mechanics are all in focus as the market expands.
To support the development of new geographical markets, ISLA will continue to provide and maintain the recognised legal standards for our industry, currently covering 71 jurisdictions. Driven by member demand, we will be expanding the scope of our netting opinions coverage, as well as continuing to advocate for securities lending frameworks in new and developing markets, with a key focus on broader Middle East markets, including Shariah approved lending documentation.
Looking at new supply and specifically the growing role of retail investors, we will be publishing our securities lending guide for retail aggregators and neo-brokers, highlighting the operational, regulatory and technical considerations for firms developing their own lending programmes.
Looking Ahead
Our 33rd Annual Conference highlighted the tremendous pace of growth and innovation in our market, with all panels reflecting a strong sense of positivity and opportunity. With that, comes the need to continuously develop the foundations of the market to support that opportunity.
ISLA is focused on working with our members, to drive practical progress, whether advocating for proportionate regulation, supporting legal certainty, guiding members through settlement and digital change, or promoting market practices that support liquidity, resilience and long-term growth.
