IHS Markit, a specialist in critical information, analytics and solutions, has added new functionality to its Securities Finance platform, a source of data and intelligence on global securities financing transactions.

The enhancements deliver public disclosure coverage for the Japanese market, a global data feed on corporate bond lending activity, an updated model for forecasting short interest in the US and multi-asset performance measurement tools.
 
“Across the securities financing ecosystem, the pace of innovation is accelerating and in step with market developments, we are providing our customers with enhanced data and analytics to help them manage their businesses with greater efficiency,” says Paul Wilson (pictured), managing director and global head of Securities Finance at IHS Markit. “We are focussed on introducing new services for beneficial owners, providing greater visibility into collateral, high quality liquid asset (HQLA) classification, best execution and other regulatory requirements.”
 
The new functionality in the IHS Markit Securities Finance platform includes daily reporting on publicly disclosed short interest for 2,000 Japanese securities, which complements existing APAC coverage in Australia, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan and increases coverage to 23 markets globally.
 
In addition, unique assessments of the securities lending supply and demand across the capital structure of a company, help to identify companies at risk of default and monitor short selling activity beyond traditional equity metrics, while an updated US Forecasting Model produces proprietary, weighted-average forecasts for US assets, with additional inputs on correlations to daily securities lending balances, dividends and trade volumes.
 
The update also includes a new peer comparison tool for securities lenders to precisely analyse their performance against best matched peer groups based on lending characteristics. For borrowers, it is an intuitive engine for comparing borrow rates among borrowers and performing peer group analyses on market size, trading levels and market share.