Development of local capital markets (LCMs) was identified as one of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development's (EBRD's) core strategic objectives at its inception in 1991, with Article 2 of the Agreement Establishing the Bank (EBRD, 2013a) committing it to "stimulate and encourage the development of capital markets”.
For the Bank's first 20 years LCM development-related activity was dominated by local currency (LCY) operations, primarily concentrated on Russia, Serbia and Ukraine and run outside of Banking by the Treasury and Offce of the General Counsel (OGC) Finance. Development of LCMs in its own right (alongside LCY) was not set out clearly as an important operational objective until the Local Currency and Local Capital Markets Initiative (LC2) was launched in 2010. The initiative's stated objective was to achieve more efficient and self-sustaining financial intermediation in the Bank's countries of operations through broader use of LCY and the development of LCM. In 2013 the initiative was redesignated as the LC2 strategy and confirmed as one of the Bank's three strategic initiatives (along with Green Economy Transition and Early Transition Countries).