Brazil’s central counterparty (CCP) BM&F Bovespa’s securities lending participants is at its lowest level since 2002, according to the CCP’s monthly report.
The number of securities lending participants grew from 21 in 1996 to peak at 100 in 2007 and then dropped to its current level of 72 in 2016.
Despite this apparent drop-off in interest, securities lending volume has actually enjoyed a modest year-to-year boost of 0.58 percent for February.
The monthly value of securities lending was valued at BRL 45.46 billion ($12.45 billion) for February.
Registered contracts grew by 10.17 percent, compared to 2015, to number 121,623 contracts for the month.
Mutual funds and foreign investors made up the lion’s share of the borrowers and lenders for February, with 39 percent and 36.9 percent respectively of lent securities coming from these demographics.
On the buy-side, 42.45 percent of borrowers were by mutual funds and 52.4 percent by foreign investors.
Brazilian bank Itaú Unibanco was the most valuable security to be shorted in February, with total transactions valued at $1.3 billion.
Just behind Itaú was Brazilian brewing company AmBev and Banco Bradesco, who earned traders $915.7 million and $619.4 million respectively.
