PrimaryBid Appoints Stacey Parsons

Investor inclusion champion Stacey Parsons joins PrimaryBid

LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / November 9, 2023 / In a significant move to advance investor inclusion in company fundraisings and fixed income investment products, capital markets technology firm PrimaryBid announces the appointment of Stacey Parsons as Managing Director and Head of Fixed Income.

Parsons' appointment will accelerate PrimaryBid's efforts to unlock investor access to high-quality corporate debt and sovereign issuance, leveraging its technology infrastructure and building upon its strategic partnerships and the investor advocacy initiatives PrimaryBid has spearheaded in the UK and EU.

With over 25 years' industry experience, including significant time as a retail gilt-edged market maker (GEMM), Parsons also serves as the founder and Chair of the Investor Access to Regulated Bonds working group (IARB) and is a member of London Stock Exchange Group's Primary Markets Group. She was previously Head of Fixed Income Strategy at Winterflood Securities.

This appointment comes at a critical juncture in UK's capital markets reforms as policy makers seek to enable and encourage wider investor participation in public regulated markets. The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) recently highlighted that debt regulation designed to protect investors had 'unintentionally exclude[d] smaller scale participants from the best products'.^[1] Only 1% of current regulated UK debt issuance is accessible to retail, even though debt sits higher in the capital structure to equity. The FCA is currently consulting on reforms in this area to be enacted in 2024.

Stacey Parsons, incoming Head of Fixed Income at PrimaryBid, said:

"Debt capital markets remain largely inaccessible to UK retail investors and wealth intermediaries in the UK. However, imminent changes in regulation will bring the UK in line with other regions where we have seen an extraordinary take up of direct ownership of sovereign and corporate debt. These reforms will allow issuers to engage retail capital and offer new listed investment opportunities for investors.

"PrimaryBid has demonstrated how an innovative platform can deliver fundamental industry change by combining smart client solutions through technology and deep industry partnerships. I'm delighted to be joining such a fantastic team, to champion this investor inclusion and financial literacy agenda in debt capital markets."

Anand Sambasivan, CEO of PrimaryBid, added:

"We are thrilled to welcome Stacey to PrimaryBid. She brings in-depth sector knowledge, an unrivalled track-record, and superb leadership credentials. At PrimaryBid we are committed to delivering more inclusive capital markets that work for everyone. Stacey's appointment will be pivotal in helping us achieve this goal.

"Our infrastructure has turned the historical challenges of including individuals and communities into opportunities, leveraging new technology and partnerships to make investor inclusion not just feasible but seamless and strategic."

Media enquiries:

Mike Coombes | mike.coombes@primarybid.com
Mark Dixon | mark.dixon@primarybid.com

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Notes to editors:

1. PrimaryBid is a regulated capital markets technology platform unlocking access to bonds, gilts, IPOs, follow-on raises and other instruments to individual retail investors, improving capital formation and driving fairness into public markets. A partner of London Stock Exchange and Euronext, PrimaryBid's platform is host to hundreds of thousands of UK and European retail investors. In the UK, PrimaryBid has been used by over 350 FTSE and AIM companies. In February 2022, PrimaryBid announced a $190m Series C investment round, led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 to drive international expansion.

2. In an environment of rising interest rates and inflation, access to retail fixed income products is increasingly important to everyday investors. They are seeking yield and income, and are also sitting on a huge pool of capital with over £300bn uninvested in cash ISAs. While fixed income investing is not totally alien to retail investors, it is a particularly undeveloped market in the UK with options such as NS&I investments being capacity limited.

3. The types of corporate debt that the public can invest in has altered radically - in 2004, UK investors could readily access investment opportunities in a number of sterling denominated FTSE household names from as little as £1,000. These included HBOS, Bupa, Aviva, Abrdn, RSA, Taylor Wimpey and Hammerson. However, the current UK Prospectus regime requires more disclosure for issuances of non-equity [fixed-income] securities with a denomination per unit below €100,000, with an alternative 'wholesale' disclosure regime for issuances above this level. Few UK corporates now issue outside the wholesale regime.

4. Given the FCA's ambition to reduce by 20% the number of individuals holding £10k+ in liquid assets by 2025, there's an emphasis on promoting 'safe' investment opportunities that channel these assets into regulated investments.

^[1] Source: Financial Conduct Authority, May 2023 Engagement Paper 4 "Non equity securities", p8

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SOURCE: PrimaryBid Limited