Securities Finance's Eastern Promise

Patience is a virtue, so the Latin proverb goes. Capital markets in Asia have boomed, in many respects, by eschewing that notion—building up capacity through the century’s early glory years and still growing as their counterparts in the West have become mired in crisis.

Yet one crucial link—the offering of securities financing like lending and repurchase (repo) structures—has remained primarily at arm’s length, offered to local Asian firms by prime services providers, and through platforms still