The Pan Asia Securities Lending Association (PASLA), the Risk Management Association (RMA) and EquiLend, have joined forces with domestic and international market participants to produce the first annual Asia Pacific Securities Lending Markets User Guide.
According to EquiLend, the guide covers the current and future state of Asia Pacific's (APAC) securities lending markets and regional innovations, as well as providing 鈥渋llustrative鈥� market data.
The guide is free to download and is available to anyone. It's primarily aimed at agent lenders, broker-dealers, central securities depositories, central counterparties, exchanges, beneficial owners, hedge funds, lawyers, regulators and consultants with an interest in the APAC securities lending markets.
The guide provides an overview of the securities lending markets in Australia, China, the China/Hong Kong Stock Connect, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.
Japan remains head-and-shoulders above the rest in terms of market size but for several years now all eyes have been on China, which is creeping its way towards becoming a viable securities lending market for offshore market participants and is expected to become the most lucrative regional market 鈥� eventually.
New markets such as the Philippines and Taiwan are also making progress in laying down the foundations for a functioning market, with the help of PASLA. In December 2019, the Philippines approved a regulatory framework for short selling and securities lending.
The guide comes at a time of 鈥渦nprecedented expansion鈥� for APAC, says Brian Lamb, CEO of EquiLend, which has an established presence in several regional markets through its offices in Toyko and Hong Kong.
PASLA chair Stuart Jones says: 鈥淲ith such a fractured regulatory landscape and so many different considerations on accessing and trading these markets, we wanted to collate all that information into a single user guide. We want this to be as useful to current market participants as it is to new entrants to the region and will make sure we keep this resource relevant.鈥�
Meanwhile, Fran Garritt, director, securities lending and global markets risk at the RMA, adds: 鈥淭he Asia Pacific securities lending markets can be a challenge to navigate due to vastly different regulatory regimes and infrastructures between markets. Our user guide covers 14 key markets across the region in detail and will help all interested market participants better understand the nuances of this key region in the global securities lending market.鈥�
The guide can be downloaded .
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