Its expense ratio falls in line with the segment and tracks well, while receiving a bit of extra revenue
from securities lending in exchange for slight counterparty risk.
Plus, the money to be
made from securities lending, the money made from keeping the price tight to the NAV (using their own designated brokers) can all be handled in house, no?
Demand for this service, which clients know as «prime broker lite,» helped drive up revenue
from securities lending by 37 % during the first three months of this year from the first quarter of 2015, and up by 5.5 % from the October - December quarter.
But it isn't clear whether this outperformance resulted from skillful trade execution by the fund's managers and
gains from securities lending, or whether it was due to some lucky break, perhaps resulting from the sample of stocks bought or the timing of share purchases.
Brokerages are prohibited from commingling client assets, and even if their are delivery
failures from securities lending, those issues are solvable, given time and the insurance.
Normally these revenues are very small, although the iShares S&P / TSX 60 (XIU) earned almost $ 3 million
from securities lending in 2012.
I expect a fund to trail its index by an amount equal to its management fee, but if the tracking error is more than that, then
revenue from securities lending might be used to close that gap.
For example, the iShares S&P / TSX 60 (XIU) has about $ 10 billion in assets and earned all of $ 157,000
from securities lending in the first half of 2011.
For example, the Claymore Canadian Financial Monthly Income (FIE) shows some revenue
from securities lending (about $ 40,000 annually).