2023 produced another year of banner revenues for the securities lending market. The strongest revenues were seen throughout the first half of the year as economic uncertainty prevailed against a backdrop of slowing interest rate hikes and on-going hesitation from central banks, looking to engineer a soft landing.
Revenues were dominated by fixed income assets as market volatility translated into moves in yields and demand for short-dated government bonds, and US equity specials. The strength of the returns generated from specials activity and the size of their contribution to overall market revenues means that the dispersion of earnings across beneficial owners has been significant.
In order to help the beneficial community, the team at S&P Global Market Intelligence Securities Finance, has recently produced the 2023 Beneficial Owner Data Dashboard. This dashboard provides beneficial owners with a breakdown of the securities lending market, specifically focusing on beneficial owner revenues and data points. This new commentary will be available at the end of each quarter.