Reference · Glossary
Securities Finance Glossary: Global Market Terminology
Plain-English definitions of the terms used across securities lending, repo and collateral management.
Last reviewed 27 October 2026
A to F
- Agent lender
- Firm that lends securities on behalf of beneficial owners and manages the programme.
- Beneficial owner
- The institution that ultimately owns lendable assets, such as a pension fund.
- Bilateral repo
- A repo where the two counterparties manage collateral directly.
- CCP
- Central counterparty: a clearing house that stands between buyer and seller.
- CSD
- Central securities depository: holds securities and settles transfers.
- Fails charge
- A penalty applied when a delivery fails, to encourage timely settlement.
- Fee split
- The agreed share of lending revenue between beneficial owner and agent lender.
G to N
- General collateral (GC)
- Securities not in particular demand, accepted interchangeably in repo.
- GMRA
- Global Master Repurchase Agreement, the standard cross-border repo contract.
- GMSLA
- Global Master Securities Lending Agreement, the standard cross-border lending contract.
- Haircut
- The percentage by which collateral value is reduced to protect the receiver against price moves.
- Indemnification
- An agent lender's promise to cover losses if a borrower defaults and collateral is insufficient.
- Manufactured dividend
- A payment from borrower to lender equal to a dividend paid while securities are on loan.
- Naked short selling
- Selling securities without having borrowed or arranged to borrow them.
O to Z
- Prime broker
- A bank providing financing, securities lending and clearing to hedge funds.
- Rebate
- Interest paid by the lender to the borrower on cash collateral.
- Recall
- The lender's request to return lent securities, often to vote or sell.
- Rehypothecation
- Reuse by a collateral receiver of collateral it has received.
- Repo
- A sale of securities with an agreement to repurchase them later; economically a collateralised loan.
- Special
- A security in high demand that trades at a repo rate below general collateral.
- Title transfer
- Collateral arrangement where ownership passes to the receiver.
- Triparty agent
- A third party that manages collateral selection, valuation and substitution.