The story
The International Capital Market Association has its roots in the creation of the Eurobond market in the early 1960s. Eurobonds created a new market in borrowing in US dollars offshore to avoid US tax regulations, but this itself introduced new problems with settlement and regulation across different jurisdictions. In response a group of bond dealers representing banks and securities firms established the Association of International Bond Dealers (AIBD) in 1969.
In the years that followed, AIBD enacted a series of rules and recommendations governing market practice, providing stability and order to the international capital market.
In the 1980s AIBD began to provide data services to the market and in 1989 launched the transaction matching, confirmation and regulatory reporting system, known as TRAX. In 1992 AIBD changed its name to International Securities Market Association (ISMA).
Separately the International Primary Market Association (IPMA) was founded in 1984 by a number of major banks to provide basic recommendations for the primary capital market.
In April 2009, ICMA sold its market services business, including TRAX, to Euroclear.
From Wikipedia’s article on International Capital Market Association, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4