Securities Lending and Borrowing
Securities lending is a temporary lending of mainly derivatives securities by a lender to the borrower. SLB is a popular mechanism globally. This mechanism provides liquidity to the equity market and thereby increases the market efficiency.
SLB provides lender incremental return on an idle portfolio. It helps to gain extra returns to shareholders without sacrificing ownership.
Some strategies where securities can be borrowed are listed below:
Cover short sale position.
Arbitrage
Pair trading
Financing Transaction
Corporate Actions and taxation handled in SLBM
Dividend: The dividend amount would be worked out and recovered from the borrower on the record date and passed on to the lender.
Stock Spilt: The position of the borrower would be proportionately adjusted and the lender will receive the revised quantity of shares at the time of settlement of return leg of the respective SLB transaction.
Other Corporate Actions: Other Corporate Actions such as bonus/merger/amalgamation/open offer the transaction would be foreclosed from the day prior to the ex-date. The lending fee would be recovered on a pro-rata basis from the lender and returned to the borrower
Long term and short term capital gains are not affected due to lending in SLB.