Earn extra revenue, say goodbye to custody fees

Maximize your investment potential by lending out your stocks and ETFs to other market participants and have your custody fees waived all at once.

Enable the service in just one click – we take care of everything else.

What makes Saxo's Securities Lending different?​

Our Securities Lending service is incredibly fair, safe, flexible and easy:

  • Get a fair 50/50 revenue split

    We handle the entire lending process for you and guarantee an equal 50/50 split of the net income with you. Plus: we never put a limit on the upside.

  • Say goodbye to custody fees

    By enabling Securities Lending, you are also automatically opting in to get your custody fees waived, and that’s not just for the stocks you are lending out – that’s for your entire portfolio.

  • Benefit from solid collateral

    Saxo is your direct counterpart, and ensures that active loans are supported by collateral of at least 102% of the loan value in a segregated Swiss custody account, for security, in the unlikely event of a borrower defaulting.

  • Have full control

    Have full control

    Our flexible setup allows you to sell your securities whenever you choose, and to enable or disable the service at any time – no advance notice or explanation needed.

Swipe left or right for more
SwissquoteInteractive Brokers
Swiss-licenced bank
X
Waived custody fees
XX
Uncapped revenue potential
X
Direct collateral counterpart
X
No minimum funding
X
*Comparison as at 24 June 2024.

What is Securities Lending?

Securities Lending is a service that allows you to lend out your stocks and ETFs temporarily to other market participants. In return, the borrower transfers other securities as collateral and pays an interest which is split 50/50 between you (the lender) and Saxo. Securities Lending can therefore be used to increase your returns and boost the profitability of your portfolio.

The best part: your securities are still yours. You’ll see them in your portfolio, you’ll receive dividends or payment equivalents of applicable dividends on these stocks with relevant withholding tax applied, and you can still sell your shares whenever you like.

So, aside from having the opportunity to increase your returns and having your custody fees waived, nothing changes for you.

Tooltip   The actual lending of stocks/ETFs depends on market demand. No lending or revenues are guaranteed by enabling the service.

How does it work? 

Let’s say you own shares in ACME Corp – and that stock is currently in high demand, paying a borrow fee of 24% per year. If you’ve enabled your account for Securities Lending, we’ll loan your shares out to market participants who will pay interest on the loan each month they’ve borrowed your shares.

We split the net income 50/50, meaning you earn 12% per year, on loaning out your ACME Corp shares. This extra income is deposited into your account at the end of each month, all visible in the Securities Lending dashboard in the platform. And while no lending or revenues are guaranteed by activating the service (since the actual lending of shares depends on market demand), we take care of the lending process for you, making it a true win-win.

How much can I earn? 

Securities Lending can generate passive income for you throughout the loan period. The interest rate you receive will depend on which securities are lent out and can vary over time. We split the net income with you 50/50.

Securities that are in high demand and are hard to borrow in the marketplace will naturally generate a higher yield when they are lent out.

Take a look at some examples of the interest rates our clients have been earning when lending out most-wanted securities.

Top in-demand stocksStock Lending Interest rate
united-states   Beyond Meat Inc.12.68%
Switzerland   Amundi Global Agg SRI UCITS DR EUR H ETF4.25%
Netherlands   Avantium20.18%
Netherlands   FastNed13.17%
German   Biocartis Group NV11.90%

The listed returns are annualised rates paid to clients during the month of October 2024. The rates can not be used as a reliable indicator for future returns.

More about Securities Lending

With Securities Lending enabled, we may borrow certain securities from your account and lend them out to third parties. For the securities we borrow, you will receive a monthly payment of any extra revenue generated by the loan, and we will collateralise you in accordance with the applicable regulations under Swiss law. All Securities Lending collateral is held in Switzerland.

Note: You continue to retain the market risk of price fluctuation for your securities on loan, just like you would if you didn’t lend those securities. In addition, you continue to retain the right to sell your securities at any point, irrespective of the loan.
There are several reasons why third parties may borrow securities. Top-tier banks and financial institutions worldwide want to borrow securities as part of their broader investment strategies. For instance, they may want to hedge their existing positions, to short markets in which they don't own any shares, or to borrow assets to meet a demanding delivery deadline.
Not necessarily. There may be high, little or no demand to borrow your securities. Certain assets are in greater demand than others, and this demand will fluctuate over time. Across your portfolio you may find, for instance, that a majority of the assets you hold do not command a lending fee at any point in time. This means that it is possible you may not earn any revenue through Securities Lending.

However, enabling the Securities Lending service remains entirely free and you will still get your custody fee waived no matter how many (if any) of your securities Saxo borrows, and no matter how much revenue you may earn from a potential loan.
If there is market demand for the borrowing of shares owned by Saxo clients, an automated, random procedure is used to determine which clients may fulfill the demand from the market. The allocation of lent shares cannot be predetermined as the selection happens randomly to ensure complete fairness in the process.

As an example, there are 29 Saxo clients with ABC shares in their portfolios, totaling 503,000 shares. Of the 29 clients, 26 made their shares available to lend for a total of 478,000 shares. There is market demand for 75,000 shares. Via an automated, random procedure, clients are identified as eligible to lend the shares.

Scenario 1: It may be that Mrs. Müller, with 100,000 shares of ABC in her portfolio, is appointed and she alone can fulfill the market demand.
Scenario 2: It is also possible that Mr. Rochat, with 2,000 shares, is appointed first, with Ms. Bianchi with 1,000 shares second, Mr. Conrad with 357 shares third and so on. In scenario 2, the demand for 75,000 shares may therefore be fulfilled by several clients with relatively small positions. 
Yes, when you enable Securities Lending, all eligible securities in your account become available for lending. Once enabled, you can exclude certain securities from being lent out by opening a new sub-account excluding Securities Lending and transferring the specific position(s) to this new sub-account. More information can be found here.
Yes, you’ll be able to see which securities (if any) are on loan and what revenue (if any) you received directly in your Portfolio Overview.
Yes, collateral is marked to market daily and adjusted to upswings or downswings of the securities’ value accordingly to ensure a minimum of 102% coverage at all times.
Yes, you can sell your securities at any time. The loan is terminated when you sell the security.
Yes, you receive dividends or payment equivalents to applicable dividends with relevant withholding tax applied on the securities while they are lent out.
While your securities are lent out, you do not retain rights to vote or attend shareholder meetings (as applicable).
You can enable or disable Securities Lending in your Profile on the platform. Click here for more information.
For accounts with positions in stocks or ETFs, a custody fee is applied depending on your account tier and securities portfolio value. The custody fee is calculated daily using end-of-day position values and billed monthly, subject to 8.1% VAT. No minimum monthly custody fee is applied. The maximum charge applied amounts to CHF 10 per month.

No custody fees are charged for mutual fund investments or bond holdings.
 

 Classic Platinum  VIP
Stocks and ETFs0.22% p.a. (max CHF 10 per month) 0.15% p.a. (max CHF 10 per month) 0.12% p.a. (max CHF 10 per month)
The custody fee waiver applies to accounts enabling Securities Lending. When you choose to disable Securities Lending, applicable custody fees will be charged on your account on a monthly basis as they would have been before you enabled the service.

For more information, please refer to the Securities Lending Agreement or visit our Support Centre.
Please refer to the Risk Disclosure for Securities Lending here.

220,000+

Daily trades

1,200,000+

Clients

100+ bn

CHF client assets

15+ bn

CHF daily trade volume

Saxo Bank (Schweiz) AG
The Circle 38
CH-8058
Zürich-Flughafen
Switzerland

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