EquiLend Launches Collateral Trading for Funding and Financing Desks

EquiLend has announced that its Collateral Trading service has gone live globally with clients from the Americas and Europe already active and users in Asia set to join in April.

The new workflow supports collateral trade negotiation, execution, and management of lifecycle events to provide funding and financing desks a centralized way to execute and manage trade structures with their counterparties.

The initial rollout supports collateral upgrade and downgrade trades. For example, a firm in need of high-quality liquid assets (HQLA)—to meet regulatory capital requirements or for balance sheet efficiency—typically trades lower-grade collateral plus a fee to a counterparty in exchange for HQLA, under a negotiated trade structure.

An upcoming release will feature additional collateral trade types and straight-through processing capabilities, including connectivity to EquiLend Spire’s books and records and inventory management modules.

Brian Lamb, CEO of EquiLend, commented:

“In the same way NGT revolutionized securities finance trading, and Swaptimization brought unparalleled liquidity and efficiency to the swaps industry, we believe EquiLend Collateral Trading is set to transform collateral trading and management. We are thrilled to be introducing this innovative new technology to a market in desperate need for efficiency and automation.”

Paul Lynch, Global Head of Products, EquiLend, said:

“Collateral Trading not only offers clients access to a centralized pool of liquidity, but it enables them to manage lifecycle events throughout the tenor of their transactions. As a front-end collateral management system, Collateral Trading offers firms greater liquidity, improved efficiency and price discovery, which is unique in this market.”

EquiLend has recently surpassed 100 client firms on NGT, while EquiLend’s swaps trading platform, Swaptimization, went live in December 2019.

EquiLend is a securities lending platform founded in late 2001 by a consortium of leading financial services institutions, including Barclays Global Investors, Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs, JPMorganChase, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Northern Trust, State Street, and UBS Warburg. The firm has recently begun to service fixed income securities markets. EquiLend has currently 143 client firms supported by 150 employees in eight offices worldwide.

In 2019, the firm appointed Paul Lynch as Global Head of Product. The firm also opened its Boston and Tokyo offices the same year the Central Bank of Ireland authorized EquiLend Limited MTF. The firm had opened its Dublin office in 2018.