Founded in 1998 by 15 major international banks to promote the syndicated loan market, The Asia Pacific Loan Market (APLMA) is now based in Hong Kong as the leading trade body for the Asia-Pacific (APAC) syndicated loan market.

Banks, law firms, insurance companies, rating agencies, multilateral agencies, financial service providers and other financial intermediaries are among APLMA’s members. APLMA has legal offices in Australia and Singapore and offshore committees in China, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Taiwan. APLMA works closely with its sister associations in Europe and North America, The Loan Market Association (LMA) and The Loan Syndications and Trading Association (LSTA).

The main work of the APLMA includes:

• Advocating market standards and practices;
• Promoting and distributing a suite of professional standard documents;
• Engaging with regulators on key matters affecting the markets;
• Organising conferences and knowledge sharing events in member countries;
• Providing a professional networking platform for members across APAC.

The APLMA is committed to promoting and advancing green and sustainable lending to its members in the APAC region. The APLMA organises Asia-wide webinars on this topic, with expert speakers in the field, while also providing a platform at other conferences for education and debate on green and sustainable finance.

Working with LMA and LSTA, in 2020, the APLMA produced two guidance documents to give market participants more clarity on their benchmark Green Loan Principles and Sustainability Linked Loan Principles. These documents aim to create high-level market standards and guideline frameworks that facilitate a consistent methodology across the wholesale green and sustainability linked loan market. In 2021, the APLMA published Social Loan Principles, recognising how social, green, and sustainable issues are interlinked and relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Additionally, APLMA is represented on The International Capital Market Association (ICMA) Working Group on Climate Transition Finance.

Objective:

To promote growth, liquidity and best practice in the syndicated loan markets in Asia Pacific.

The Loan Market Association charges its members an annual subscription fee.

Find out more about membership categories and subscription fees here.