The global securities finance industry generated $634 million in revenue for lenders in February 2022, according to DataLend, the market data division of fintech EquiLend. The figure represents a less than 1% increase year over year from the $631 million generated in February 2021.
Global broker-to-broker activity, where broker-dealers lend and borrow securities from each other, totaled an additional $185 million in revenue in February, a 35% decrease from 2021.
According to DataLend, the minor increase in lender-to-broker revenue over 2021 was driven by global fixed income, where the average fee increased by 19% and the average on-loan value increased by 3%. More specifically, government debt saw an 8% increase in revenue while corporate debt saw an increase of 104% year over year.
The resulting $30 million revenue increase offset a major decrease in revenue for both EMEA and North American equities of 18% and 9%, respectively.
Compared to January 2021, the $634 million in revenue generated for lenders represents a 10% decrease from the $703 million generated for lenders last month.
The top five earners in February 2022 were Lucid Group (LCID), Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC), Cassava Sciences (SAVA), Ginkgo Bioworks (DNA) and Dutch Bros (BROS). The five securities in total generated over $58 million in revenue in the month.