DataLend: January 2023 Securities Lending Revenue Up 27% YoY to $890 Million

NEW YORK (Feb. 2, 2023)—The global securities finance industry generated $890 million in revenue for lenders in January 2023, according to DataLend, the market data service of fintech EquiLend. The figure represents a 27% increase from the $703 million generated in January 2022.

Global broker-to-broker activity, where broker-dealers lend and borrow securities from each other, totaled an additional $248 million in revenue in January, a 30% increase year-over-year.

According to DataLend, the improvement in lender-to-broker revenue over 2022 was driven primarily by a surge in North America, which saw 36% year-over-year growth. Performance in North America was strong across asset classes with equities rising by 41% and fixed income up 21%.

Borrow rates in the equity market were largely responsible for the overall improvement in revenue, with fees climbing 30% in North America and 32% in EMEA year-over-year. While equity fees accounted for the bulk of the gross revenue increase, corporate debt continued its strong run, improving on December totals and registering 61% revenue growth compared to January 2022. Fees again were the biggest driver with a 60% year-over-year increase for corporates.

On the other side of the ledger, APAC securities were nearly flat with a half-percentage point decline in revenue year-over-year. While fees dipped 11%, an inverse increase of 11% in balances offset the decrease in loan prices.

Month-over-month, the $890 million in revenue generated for lenders in January represents a 5% increase from the $850 million generated for lenders in December 2022.

The top five earners in January 2023 were AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC), Lucid Group (LCID), Beyond Meat Inc (BYND), GameStop Corporation (GME) and MicroStrategy (MSTR). The five securities in total generated nearly $125 million in revenue in the month and $42 million more than the December top five.