Financial markets offered very few surprises during the second quarter of the year as equity indices across the globe continued to break through new record highs and both inflation and interest rates continued to fall.  Given the unidirectional moves seen across global equities, the VIX (otherwise known as the fear gauge), trended close to all time lows.  In the fixed income markets, economic data remained key to bond performance.  Data often remained mixed however and led to the European Central Bank cutting interest rates by 25bps during June, marking the first signs of central bank policy divergence.

In the securities lending markets, revenues were not as exceptional as those seen throughout both 2022 and 2023, but remained robust within the broader context of a longer time period.  Despite the decline in lending opportunities across European equities and the continuation of the steady reduction in average fees seen across fixed income assets, revenues remained healthy across other markets such as the US and Asia.  An increase in financing and term lending was also seen.  

To get the full picture of how the securities lending market performed during Q2, please join us at our upcoming Q2 Securities finance Market review webinar at 3pm BST / 10am EST on July 25^th 2024.  During this webinar we are delighted to welcome Gesa Johannsen, Head of Clearance and Collateral Management International Business at BNY.  Gesa will be running us through the latest trends in the collateral markets and will be discussing the opportunities that market participants should be looking at during the second half of the year.