EquiLend signs up first South African client
Absa Bank has started trading on Equilend, making the South African arm of Barclays Group Africa the first-ever domestic South African entity to execute a securities finance trade via the platform.
EquiLend anticipates greater activity in the South African securities finance market as the need for an efficient means of sourcing securities to cover failed trades becomes increasingly important with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange moving toward a shorter securities settlement cycle, from the current T+5 cycle to T+3.
“We are constantly aware of our clients’ demands to bring the automation and efficiency gains seen for users of our platform to new markets,” said Brian Lamb, CEO of EquiLend.
“We have seen significant interest among domestic market participants in South Africa, who are keen to elevate their international presence... We anticipate considerable growth in this market going forward.”
“Partnering with EquiLend was a natural step for Barclays Group Africa in becoming the ‘go-to’ prime brokerage business,” said Francois Henrion, head of equity finance within Absa’s prime services business.
About 100 principal lenders, agent lenders and broker-dealers in the securities finance markets globally are active on EquiLend and its fixed-income trading counterpart BondLend.
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