The global securities finance industry generated US$1.05 billion in revenue for lenders in April 2023, a 27 per cent year-on-year (YoY) increase from April 2022.
Global broker-to-broker activity, where broker-dealers lend and borrow securities from each other, totalled an additional US$279 million in revenue for the month of April, representing a 22 per cent YoY increase.
Month-over-month, the revenue generated for lenders in April (US$1.05 billion) amounted to a 3 per cent rise from the revenue accumulated in March 2023.
According to DataLend, the improvement in lender-to-broker revenue over 2022 was largely due to a continued increase in fees. Globally, across all asset classes, lending fees climbed 32 per cent YoY and 9 per cent from March 2023.
A strong market for global equities helped increase revenue by 45 per cent YoY in North America, the market data service of fintech EquiLend reports.
Revenue also inclined 16 per cent in EMEA and 7 per cent in APAC YoY in April.
Securities trading “special,” where fees meet or exceed 500 basis points (bps), generated US$525 million, a 52 per cent increase over the same period last year and up 10 per cent from the previous month.
The top five earners in April 2023 according to DataLend were AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC), Upstart Holdings (UPST), Lucid Group (LCID), GameStop Corp (GME) and DNB Bank (DNB NO).
In total, the group generated US$151 million in revenue in the month — US$48 million more than the top five returned in March.
Performance was also strong for corporate and government debt, with YoY revenue improvements of 67 per cent and 5 per cent, respectively. However, revenue from lending government debt declined by 11 per cent from the previous month.
