In this edition, we explore Q1 2025 securities lending trends, spotlight APAC’s standout 27% revenue growth, introduce EquiLend’s Short Squeeze Score, examine corporate bond short interest signals and highlight Korean short selling performance.

Insight July 2025 The Purple A Market’s Maturation: The Continued Growth of ETF Securities Finance The long-term growth of the Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) market is one of the most significant structural developments in modern finance. As ETFs have become foundational components of institutional portfolios, the ecosystem supporting them has matured in tandem. A key part

Insight July 2025 The Purple Tariff Turbulence: How Trade Wars Reshaped Securities Lending in H1 2025 The securities lending market thrives on market volatility and since Trump took office the VIX volatility index peaked to levels not seen since March 2020, when COVID rattled the globe. According to President Trump, “Tariffs is the most beautiful

Insight July 2025 The Purple H1 2025: Securities Lending Market Revenue EquiLend looks back on the drivers of lending revenue in the first half of 2025 in the 19th Edition of EquiLend The Purple. As we arrive at the midway point of 2025, trade and market volatility remain the global topics of conversation. The Trump

The first quarter of 2025 was a period of heightened volatility and uncertainty for global markets, driven by a confluence of macroeconomic and geo-political factors.

Navigating short interest in the corporate bond market can be filled with risk. The lack of transparency and public reporting forces investors to use limited tools while today’s macroeconomic volatility provides prime conditions for short selling.

In Q1 2025, the lending of APAC equities bolstered revenue for the rest of the securities finance market by reporting a 29% increase in year-over-year revenue of $569 million.

EquiLend Short Squeeze Score | Designed to provide early warning signals of potential short squeezes, using both comprehensive securities finance data and social media sentiment data.

After aggressively hiking interest rates to a 10-year high of 5.5%, the U.S. Federal Reserve started 2024 in a holding-pattern of sorts. Inflation measures were cooling, but the American consumer was still feeling the pain of high prices.

With two months now elapsed since the 2024 U.S. presidential election, policy shifts planned by the incoming administration have begun to come into focus, and broader financial markets have reacted in kind. While the implications of a potentially dramatic shift are only beginning to be realized, there are key signals and themes which can already be observed within the securities finance market.

As U.S. equity markets rallied in 2024, securities lending revenue for U.S. equities faced significant challenges, with Q4 revenue down 7% year-over-year (YoY), contributing to a total annual decline of 17%. A 22% drop in fees drove the decrease and offset a 5% increase in balances, which was driven by increased valuations.

While global securities lending revenue faced headwinds in 2024, the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region showed resilience, experiencing a comparatively modest 1.8% year-over-year (YoY) decline to $2.1 billion. The majority of revenue was generated by equities, contributing $2 billion, representing a 0.3% YoY decline. A 3.3% increase in fees was offset by a 3.8% decrease in on-loan balances.