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Sharegain
Founded in 2015 , Sharegain offers a Securities-Lending-as-a-Service product ( SLaaS ), which aims to generate additional income for investors on assets that would otherwise sit idle . According to its website , the start- up began with one question : If every investor has a right to lend their stocks , bonds and ETFs , but only the very largest institutions are able to exercise this right , what would it take to open up this revenue opportunity for every investor ? “ The answer was simple ,” the firm says . “ Build a fintech solution that would enable every asset manager , wealth manager , custodian bank and online brokers to lend their securities and earn a new income stream for them and their clients . The rest is history .” With SLaaS , Sharegain says it has brought the 60-year-old practice of securities lending into the digital age . The product is an automated platform that enables private banks , asset managers and online brokers to lend their stocks , bonds and ETFs and generate additional revenue for them and their clients . With an API , the solution can be integrated directly into these organisations ’ own platforms . Sharegain can also provide digital agent lending capabilities to enable more organisations , such as smaller custodians and private banks , to manage their own securities lending programmes . Citi , for example , has partnered with Sharegain to offer securities lending to wealth management firms that it custodies . The bank also participated
ELEVATOR PITCH
We saw a clear opportunity to democratise the securities lending market with fintech , so our clients no longer have to walk away from the extra returns lending their securities can offer .
Notable partners and collaborators : Citi
in a $ 64 million Series B funding round earlier this year . Expanding securities lending access , including to retail investors , can also have the effect of growing the market as a whole , which could benefit institutional players . For example , “ if you bring up the volume of specials , you ’ ll see investment banks and hedge funds creating more borrowing strategies ,” Boaz Yaari , founder and CEO of Sharegain told Global Custodian last year . Among some of its product launched over the past 12 months has been the Betterlend program , where investors can allocate and track how some of their securities lending revenue can support social and environmental projects . Environmental , social and governance factors have become more important within the securities lending industry in recent years , but the emphasis has primarily been on areas like aligning lending with proxy voting . In May this year , Sharegain also became the first company globally to go live with SWIFT public cloud connectivity , enabling full SWIFT messaging capabilities for its clients and their custodians via the cloud .
40 Global Custodian Fall 2022