… partnership between GFIM, ACI and Frontclear
As part of its efforts at deepening the understanding of the dynamics of the fixed income market in the country, the Ghana Fixed Income Market (GFIM), in partnership with ACI Financial Markets Association (ACI FMA) Ghana and Frontclear, has formally launched the Frontclear Academy.
As part of its efforts at deepening the understanding of the dynamics of the income market in the country, the Ghana Fixed Income Market (GFIM), in partnership with ACI Financial Markets Association (ACI FMA) Ghana and Frontclear, has forfixed mally launched the Frontclear Academy.
Launching in Ghana, the second country on the continent after Uganda, the Frontclear Academy aims to ensure that the knowledge of market participants and regulators keep pace with global developments. It offers market practitioners the opportunity to continually learn in a world which has shifted on-line.
This comes as Frontclear has provided on-site training to market participants in the country since 2016, a year after the GFIM was established. With the conviction that training is a key component to financial market development, the Frontclear Academy ensures continuity amidst COVID-19 related travel restrictions.
Speaking at the launch, which was held virtually, the Deputy Managing Director of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), Abena Amoah stated that the development was in line with the aim of GFIM in bringing about greater efficiency, liquidity and transparency in the pricing and trading of fixed income securities and to grow the overall bond market by attracting new issuers and products.
“Building up the knowledge base of our market operators is key to the development and growth of the market. GFIM will not renege on its efforts to develop the capacity of all our stakeholders. Our partnership with Frontclear to train the market participants has yielded many benefits to the market, including the 50 free licenses distributed today. The Frontclear Academy is another milestone in our efforts to educate the market to achieve efficiency and excellence,” she said.
She added that, encouraged by the growth of GFIM, which has seen volume traded rise by some 5,460% from 5.22 billion in 2015 to over 288 billion cumulatively by end of February 2020, the Market will be looking to improve issuer and product diversity, develop rules and guidelines for green bonds and a derivative market and hinted at an imminent launch of bond indices as well as a domestic credit rating agency, among other measures.
Taking her turn, Vice President Strategic Projects at Frontclear, Ingrid Hagen said: “Ghana is the second African market to have access to the Frontclear Academy. We look forward to the market’s feedback in our continuous effort to support market development. The next country to gain access will be in Latin America and then Asia.”
On his part, The President of ACI FMA Ghana, Kofi Pianim expressed excitement over the prospects of the initiative, which he expects will “build capacity of the domestic capital markets.”
The launch involved the distribution of 50 free licenses to the platform to market participants that include banks, brokerages, fund managers and regulators. Courses on the program include: Money Market Matters: Fundamentals of a financial system; Bond Accounting and Repos; Accounting for Derivatives; International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) Masterclass; Repo Primer – understanding, managing and using repos Global Master Repurchase Agreement (GMRA) Primer – understanding and implementing GMRA; among others.
Frontclear is a development finance organization dedicated to stable and inclusive money markets. Its investors are largely European development financial institutions and governments. Frontclear offers technical assistance and implements regulator roundtables, advisory projects on legal enforceability, industry training and market infrastructure development – all targeting the development of healthy money markets.
To-date, Frontclear has facilitated US$1 billion in interbank money market transactions in 15 countries. It has trained over 1400 obligors and regulators in near 30 countries and signed near dozen partnerships with central banks and local beneficiaries.
