SBL Network (SBL), a new fintech company created to provide transaction and information services to the global capital markets industry, is to launch a peer-to-peer securities lending platform.
SBL has raised approximately GBP1 million this year via two EIS-qualifying funding rounds and now plans to launch the Aquila Network in response to the growing demand for greater transparency in the securities lending marketplace.
Aquila Network provides the first market place allowing major institutional owners of equities such as Pension Funds, Insurance Companies and Sovereign Wealth Funds, to negotiate and lend directly to Hedge Funds. Participants will be able to negotiate securities lending transactions and benefit from access to anonymous pricing data providing complete peer-to-peer pricing transparency of the transaction executed across its platform. Aquila Network is currently trialling the system on a closed-circuit basis and anticipates starting live operations with its first third-party clients before the end of this year.
SBL was established in 2016 by founder-Chairman Peter Fenichel (pictured), former Chief Executive of Instinet Fixed Income Markets, Reuters’ electronic NASDAQ marketplace, and a team of senior Anglo–American capital markets executives with over a century of combined financial markets experience. The Board includes the former Chief Executive of LCH.Clearnet, David Hardy; Marc Gerstein, former Executive Vice President of Strategy at Instinet; Alex Pilsworth, the SBL CTO; and the recently appointed Chief Executive of SBL, Tammy Phillips (subject to regulatory approval), formerly with Morgan Stanley and Barclays Capital.
Fenichel says: “We have seen a very positive response from the international stock borrowing and lending community to our pre-launch marketing. We believe the market is now at a pivotal point and is ready to accept a significant structural change which will allow direct interaction between participants, with all the benefits which will flow from such direct dealing. Clients of our Aquila Network will have access to a truly innovative means of arranging peer-to-peer securities lending transactions within a secure environment. Automating the process represents an effective, efficient and hugely cost-saving way forward for participants.”
“I am also delighted to announce the recent appointment of Tammy Phillips to the Board as Chief Executive. She will play a pivotal role in driving forward the launch of Aquila Network and the longer-term global strategy and continued development of SBL.”
