Robinhood Launches Stock Lending Program

On Wednesday, Robinhood, a major US commission-free stock trading and investing app, announced the official launch of the Stock Lending program. According to a blog post published by the platform, Robinhood aims to have a ‘democratized approach’ to paid securities lending.

A Robinhood customer can lend out fully paid stocks in their portfolio by enabling Stock Lending. Through Robinhood’s in-app dashboard, customers can track earnings, see their positions, and enable or disable Stock Lending at any time.

“Our version of Stock Lending empowers customers to put their investments to work while keeping it simple. Robinhood does the work of finding borrowers and managing transactions while customers can add a potential source of passive recurring income to their portfolio. We’re excited to break down yet another barrier and democratize a product that has been historically preserved for the wealthy with high barriers to entry,” Steve Quirk, Chief Brokerage Officer at Robinhood, commented.

Robinood highlighted: “Fully paid securities lending is a demand-driven business, meaning that securities with limited supply have greater potential to be loaned out and the potential to yield greater returns than securities where supply is more liquid.”

However, Fractional shares, as well as shares held in an account with a margin balance, are not eligible to be loaned out through the Stock Lending program.

Ziglu Acquisition

Last month, Robinhood announced that it reached an agreement to acquire the London-based fintech app, Ziglu. The acquisition comes in the midst of the platform’s expansion into the UK and Europe, as the plans were halted two years ago.

“Like Robinhood, Ziglu believes that the new era of digital money brings a multitude of opportunities, and Ziglu exists to make those opportunities accessible to everyone. Their talented team and technology will help us accelerate our international expansion, both in the UK and across Europe,” the stock trading and investing app pointed out.