Came across SecLending Trader opening at several banks/funds including state street. Looking to get some insights from folks who are already in that role like fun aspects about the role, pain points, incentive to stay in the role, expected base and total comp numbers at different levels etc. Is it considered FO role? It is a revenue generating role and involves lot of relationship building, that’s all I know. Also, is it worth for a quant to consider moving to such a role? Appreciate the thoughts. #SecLending #Trader #Banking
Securities lending is fundamentally a pretty boring industry I'd say. I used to work on the back office side of it. Essentially you've got mega pension funds with huge portfolios. They can lend some of that out for a few days so that somebody else can short it without being obviously short. The fees are tiny so you have to lend either a lot of volume, or those few shares that are in high demand because nobody's got them. I'd say it's not really considered trading. Sure, you (ie the bank) can make more or less money doing it well, but it just adds a few 0.1% return to the owners. Nothing spectacular but worth doing if you can keep the team cheap enough. Get the idea? I wouldn't say it's quantitative. In my back office role, about as quantitative as it got was to FX a cash flow back into the base currency of the bank - i.e. one multiply.