US Securities Industry Association: "US Base Interest Rate Will Be Maintained at Current Level Before Being Lowered"

Amid growing uncertainty over additional interest rate hikes in the United States, a U.S. financial market expert has diagnosed that interest rates will be maintained at the current level before being lowered.

Peter Mattison, Executive Director of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), stated on the 20th at the 'International Council of Securities Associations (ICSA) International Conference' held at the Four Seasons Hotel Seoul, hosted by the Korea Financial Investment Association, "78% of U.S. economic experts expect the U.S. Federal Reserve's (Fed) benchmark interest rate to rise to 5.00?5.25% and then decline thereafter."

Considering the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) regular meeting on the 14th (local time), where the Fed maintained the benchmark interest rate at 5.00?5.25%, this forecast suggests that the current level will be maintained without further hikes before being lowered.

Mattison said, "The U.S. financial market has recovered more resiliently than expected, but the situation remains very uncertain due to the upcoming U.S. presidential election next year," adding, "The U.S. GDP growth rate for next year is expected to be 1.7%, and inflation is projected to be 3.0% at both the end of this year and next year."

The International Council of Securities Associations (ICSA), an international organization for the development of international capital markets, held its annual general meeting over three days from the 18th to today. The first and second days of the meeting were conducted in closed sessions.

On the third day, the conference themed "Preparing for the Future of the Financial Industry" focused significantly on technological innovations in the financial investment sector such as artificial intelligence (AI), big data, security tokens (ST), virtual assets, and related regulatory trends in various countries.

Brian Passcoe, Chairman of the International Capital Market Association (ICMA), said, "The international financial market has experienced instability due to the pandemic, war, and bank failures, and it is necessary to utilize technological innovation as a means to reduce market risks," emphasizing, "Above all, transparency in the market must be enhanced through collaboration between market participants and regulators."

Discussions and sharing of related cases continued regarding the simplification of listing procedures and expansion of research on small and medium-sized enterprises to supply venture capital (funds invested in promising venture companies).

Jonathan Bock, CEO of Blackstone Business Development Company (BDC), analyzed, "BDC investments are concentrated on direct lending (DL) worth about 1.5 trillion won, but the potential scale is close to 4 trillion dollars, indicating high growth potential."

Additionally, Jonathan Dix, Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of Octopus Investments, introduced that Venture Capital Trust (VCT), a product investing in venture capital, has gained great popularity among general investors in the UK as a tax-advantaged product, explaining, "There was also a positive effect of creating employment for more than 70,000 people as companies receiving VCT investments grew."

Furthermore, discussions were held on improving vulnerabilities in the global bond market, structural reforms of the domestic corporate bond market, and pension systems in various countries.

Seo Yoo-seok, Chairman of the Korea Financial Investment Association, said, "The association previously hosted the ICSA annual general meetings in 1997 and 2008," adding, "Both times were during global financial crises, and through the annual meetings, we gained global insights on crisis response and created opportunities to overcome the crises."

He added, "Our capital market has always turned crises into opportunities for continuous development," and expressed hope that "this conference will serve as a catalyst to overcome the crisis and advance to the next level."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.