Securities Lending

Trading 212 is profitable as it’s always been. Q1 was our best quarter ever. Now we are getting closer to making the Invest and ISA services a sustainable business.

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For what it’s worth I think this is a completely logical business step.

Really did think at least a small portion of the lending fees would be shared directly with the customer though. That’s a shame. Rather than indirectly by keeping trading free.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m grateful for the free trading.

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I agree that this seems a reasonable step. Out of interest, did T212 consider a similar approach to Degiro? If I remember rightly, the Dutch broker allows clients to opt out of lending by choosing a different account but they are then subject to higher fees. That said, as much as I’m all for choice, I wouldn’t advocate such an approach, especially for a commission-free broker.

Would it be possible to inform us when our shares are lent out, even if its after the fact in a monthly/quarterly summary?

I would find that information very interesting.

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I’d expect that to be very difficult. Suppose some Apple shares are lent out but this is not the entire Apple holding of T212 clients How are T212 to say whose shares were lent? It would have to be done proportionally, but would it really be meaningful to be told that 0.02 of your 100 Apple shares had been lent out? Clients who happen to hold shares that are popular for shorting will be contributing more to this revenue stream, but all of us will benefit from low fees.

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Since IB hold enough shares in reserve to give them back to us when we plan to close our positions, I don’t see any point in being told if our shares were in theory lent out or not. after all, it makes no difference to our accounts at the end of the day and it’s really just T212 telling us they now offer this service.

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I always see which of my securities are lent out… and how much…it’s very possible.

In what type of account do you see that? Probably not a broker omnibus account type structure?

@Dao and @Richard.W I think this just case of different perspectives.
If it is possible for T212 to do this then that would be great, if not that’s ok.

I’m not looking to be paid money for the lending, but information is its own form of payment.

Yes it would. Not so much the proportion of the lending but the fact it was lent at all. I understand that this might scare some investors which is why I’m not going throw myself on my sword for this.

I’m a data professional and anyone can get this data in a roundabout form anyway. But it would, in my view, be convenient and interesting to see it in app.

Charles Schwab and Webull.

Just to make it clear, did you mean that T212 has been a profitable business - as a whole - for years (I guess thanks to CFD users?), but that now with the introduction of securities lending, you’re making profitable also the Invest/ISA ā€œbusiness unitsā€ on their own?

Anyway, I’m very happy you’re finding ways to get profit while still keeping the service free of charge.
As another user said above, I as well don’t care at all about getting a % of the interests you get from the borrower. The free T212 service is enough :slight_smile:

Thanks a lot for the transparency, another one of the things I love about T213! :slight_smile:

If not both, I feel it is preferable and more efficient for most of us to benefit from low fees (as fees have to be paid out of taxed income) rather than receive some share lending interest (on which we would have to compute and pay income tax).

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Completely fair point

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I’d be interested to hear what you mean by this and what data about this you have seen.

As you probably know, one major UK platform moved to a subscription model in the last year, referring to it as ā€œNetflix pricingā€. They offer 3 different monthly subscriptions, tailored to those who trade less or more frequently. Is it not working for them?

An article in the Times Business section today mentions one FTSE 250 broker seeing profits rise by 28% in the last 6 months. When I tried to post a comment about the exit fee policy of that company and the ongoing FCA consultation on banning exit fees, my comment was deleted by the moderator.

I also had another comment deleted when I mentioned that Trading 212 has smaller fees!

Perhaps your comment refers to the fintech banks only, the ones offering premium accounts with benefits like travel insurance for a fee.

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@Aziz2589 basically IB has enough shares in reserve, so if that happens you will still have your shares safe and available. the risk is on T212’s side as the party offering the service.

It keeps me at ease that ISA and invest can self sustain :+1:

I was thinking of Interactive Investor, who has 3 monthly subscriptions, Ā£9.99, Ā£13.99 or Ā£19.99 per month and talked of a ā€œNetflix pricingā€ - meaning that you can change your subscription level from month to month. The broker mentioned in today’s Times Business is AJ Bell. Both are more expensive to use than Trading 212 - especially when it comes to foreign exchange fees, which are 1.5% and 1% respectively. Of course these are traditional investment platforms, not what one would call ā€œfintechsā€.

Sorry to intrude, but I remember when II introduced this model. Their claim that their pricing is like Netflix is a stretch, its a bit more like Amazon Prime TV.

Currently for your sub you get ISA, Sipp but only one free trade per month. Subsequent trades are Ā£7.99. Not to say their model is bad, but I remember taking issue with the ā€œNetflixā€ claim at the time.

Their claim that their pricing is like Netflix is a stretch, its a bit more like Amazon Prime TV.

That makes sense. I do, however, like the fact that Interactive Investor offers multicurrency balances, so that one can buy and sell US stocks without leaving USD, and transfer out in USD to a Revolut account.

I am doing that at present, with a legacy portfolio of US stocks, but realise this is precarious, Revolut might change its unlimited low-cost fx at any time. Then I would be trapped by Interactive Investor who charge a very hefty 1.5% for currency exchange.

@Ivan I would prefer to place my portfolio with Trading 212 with low-fx cost. But to move my holdings to Trading 212, I need in specie transfer, so I do not have to cash out, pay 1.5% fx and then rebuy,

Can the @Team212 confirm that we, investors using the T212 platform, will still get dividends for our investments even if these shares are ā€œlent outā€?
Also, do we maintain our right to vote in AGMs? (This I believe is one of your targets, to allow us to vote in AGMs)

The Investopedia article that you make reference to, states that:
imagen

Which is a bit concerning. The article itself is a bit confusing as it has something contradictory about dividends earlier on.