Absa Capital Goes Live with SunGard's Global One

South Africa-based Absa Capital has implemented upgrades of SunGard's Global One stock-lending platform.

Global One supports activities pertaining to the lending of securities, including borrowing and lending, as well as buy/sell backs and repos (repurchase agreements). It covers trade processing, operations and reporting within lending activities, and has been interfaced with South Africa's central securities depository Strate (Securities Transactions Totally Electronic, the country's electronic settlement system) to support activities on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, and off-market trades. The upgrades also allow for increased compliance with regulatory measures mandated by Strate.

Absa Capital is the investment banking arm of Absa Bank, an affiliate of Barclays Capital, headquarted in Johannesburg with offices in Durban and Cape Town.

"SunGard's Global One provides Absa Capital with a sound securities-lending system that helps increase our competitiveness," says Chris Edwards, head of prime services at Absa Capital. "It is also helping us achieve our objective of straight- through processing, thereby making our offerings more attractive to our clients. Support from SunGard and its commitment to deliver on time further assist our business in our quest for continued growth and maintaining that competitive advantage."

What is securities lending?

Securities lending refers to the activity of lending securities in the pursuit of long and short positions for profit. For example, a securities lender, typically a large institutional investor such as a pension or mutual fund, will loan securities to a short-seller such as a hedge fund, which is usually required to put up substantial collateral to "guarantee" the loan. The short seller (fund) then sells the security, with the aim of buying it back at a lower price at a predetermined date in the future, thus turning a profit, before returning the security to the lender.