EquiLend, a global platform offering a full suite of automated trading and post-trade securities financing solutions, have announced a 16% growth in the number of borrowing and lending transactions on its platform since the start of 2011. The news coincides with the firm’s 10-year anniversary where the company celebrated this milestone with a gala industry event in New York.
EquiLend, is backed by 10 of the world’s largest global financial institutions: BlackRock, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, J.P Morgan, J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Northern Trust, State Street and UBS.
EquiLend has overseen a decade of continuous innovation and now facilitates 28,000 transactions in a single day – valued at US$21.3bn.
2011 has also seen EquiLend win more clients than in any other year throughout its 10-year history. Among them include RBC Dexia Investor Services, Zürcher Kantonalbank (ZKB), Prudential Investment Management and Kellner DiLeo & Co, and bringing the number of companies EquiLend now has participating on its platform to 64.
This past 12 months has also witnessed the launch of the firm’s groundbreaking fixed income and repo trading & post trade services platform, BondLend. This provides clients with a single point of access to the global securities financing platform for fixed income and repo markets, giving them greater liquidity, reduced risk and scalability. BondLend has already signed up major global players including CIBC Mellon, State Street, Northern Trust and Clearstream.
In February, EquiLend launched in Asia with the opening of its Hong Kong operation. Andrew McCardle was appointed to head sales, business development and client relationship management in the region.
Brian Lamb, Group CEO of EquiLend, said:
“The last 10 years have truly been an exciting journey for EquiLend and indeed the industry as a whole. We have grown from a business-to-business solution for ten firms to a world-class utility for the global securities finance marketplace. The future continues to look very bright for EquiLend. We are venturing into new and emerging markets, we have some of the brightest people in the industry working with us, we have the backing of 10 leading global financial institutions, and we remain at the cutting-edge of innovation in securities finance technology.”
Laurence Marshall, Managing Director and COO of Equilend, concluded:
“Moreover, our ability to be flexible and to adapt to the rapidly changing international regulatory environment enables us to innovate and create the appropriate technology to meet our clients’ needs.”