Just received this email:
How does getting paid additional income on your shares without lifting a finger sound? Good? Thought so.
Securities lending is a common practice where brokers lend out stocks held by their customers and collect a fee from the borrowers. Normally though, the brokers keep all the earnings.
Stock Lending is Stake's take on securities lending where we're sharing the earnings with you, the stockholders. Stock Lending will let you earn passive income on the U.S. stocks you have on Stake. Not all stocks will get lent; however, if your stocks do, you’ll get paid. And if you do not wish to lend your stocks, you can simply opt out.
You earn income on your stocks that are lent. Only fully paid stocks in your Wall St account(s) are eligible. There is no guarantee that your stocks will actually be lent. Also, the income earned will vary based on the stock, duration of the loan, market conditions and borrower demand.
You continue to receive dividends for your stocks. Our partner DriveWealth will generally recall loans ahead of any dividend payments, so you receive dividends as normal. If your stock happens to be on loan during a dividend payment, you will receive an equivalent cash payment instead. This may have tax implications.
Your voting rights will change. You cannot vote while a stock is on loan. If you want to partake in an upcoming vote for a stock that’s on loan, you can opt out of Stock Lending at least three business days before the record date, to end the loan and vote. Opt in again after the vote to resume participating in Stock Lending.
Ownership transfers to the borrower when your stocks are lent. But you have a contractual right to the return of the stocks at any time - just sell your shares or opt out of Stock Lending. Because of this, you retain ‘economic ownership’ of the stocks, meaning you are still exposed to fluctuations in the value of the stocks.
The borrower of your stocks may re-lend them. For your U.S. stocks, our partner DriveWealth will be the borrower, and they will re-lend stocks to other borrowers. Borrowing stocks has many uses, such as improving market liquidity and hedging. Your stocks could also be used by borrowers for investment strategies, like short selling, that could put downward pressure on the value of your stocks.
Collateral will be put into a separate bank account by the borrower as security for the loan. This will be cash or other assets worth at least 102% of the value of your lent stocks. It is adjusted each business day.
There is a risk that the borrower can’t return your stocks. If this happens and the value of collateral is less than the value of your lent stocks, this could result in a financial loss which the borrower owes you.
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