when a security is loaned the title and the ownership are also transferred to the borrower a loan fee or borrow fee is charged by a brokerage to a client for borrowing shares along with any interest due related to the loan the loan fee and interest are charged pursuant to a securities lending agreement that must be completed before the stock is borrowed by a client holders of securities that are loaned receive a rebate from their brokerage 
securities lending provides liquidity to markets can generate additional interest income for long term holders of securities and allows for short selling investopedia ryan oakleyunderstanding securities lendingsecurities lending is generally facilitated between brokers or dealers and not directly by individual investors to finalize the transaction a securities lending agreement or loan agreement must be completed this sets forth the terms of the loan including duration interest rates lender s fees and the nature of the collateral according to current regulations borrowers should provide at least 100 percent of the security s value as collateral collateral for securities also depends on its volatility the minimum initial collateral on securities loans is at least 102 percent of the market value of the lent securities plus for debt securities any accrued interest 1 in addition the fees and interest charged on a securities loan will often depend on how difficult it is to locate those securities desired for borrow the more scarce the supply of available securities the higher the cost typical securities lending requires clearing brokers who facilitate the transaction between the borrowing and lending parties the borrower pays a fee to the lender for the shares and this fee is split between the lending party and the clearing agent benefits of securities lendingsecurities lending is important to short selling in which an investor borrows securities to immediately sell them the borrower hopes to profit by selling the security and buying it back later at a lower price since ownership has been transferred temporarily to the borrower the borrower is liable to pay any dividends out to the lender in these transactions the lender is compensated in the form of agreed upon fees and also has the security returned at the end of the transaction this allows the lender to enhance its returns through the receipt of these fees the borrower benefits through the possibility of drawing profits by shorting the securities securities lending is also involved in hedging arbitrage and fails driven borrowing in all of these scenarios the benefit to the securities lender is either to earn a small return on securities currently held in its portfolio or to possibly meet cash funding needs understanding short sellinga short sale involves the sale and buyback of borrowed securities the goal is to sell the securities at a higher price and then buy them back at a lower price these transactions occur when the securities borrower believes the price of the securities is about to fall allowing him to generate a profit based on the difference in the selling and buying prices regardless of the amount of profit if any the borrower earns from the short sale the agreed upon fees to the lending brokerage are due once the agreement period has ended 