Distortions Caused by Institutional Securities Lending

Abstract

Using newly-mandated disclosures, we show some fund managers retain a fraction of securities lending income by employing in-house lending agents. In a model with heterogeneous investors, we find this retention leads funds to overweight high-fee stocks that endogenously underperform. We find empirical evidence consistent with our model's predictions: active mutual funds we identify as fee retainers invest more in high-fee stocks and underperform relative to both non-retaining and non-lending funds. We also show fee retention can explain the negative relation between lending fees and future fee-inclusive stock returns.