Key Takeaways
- • EquiLend and Credit Benchmark have integrated consensus credit ratings directly into EquiLend's Onboard+ counterparty onboarding platform, enabling real-time access to market-wide credit perspectives during workflow decisions.
- • Credit Benchmark's consensus ratings are derived from internal credit risk views contributed by 40+ leading global financial institutions, including nearly half of all GSIBs, providing institutional-grade credit context for funds lacking official agency ratings.
- • The integration surfaces the number of institutions contributing to each consensus rating alongside existing onboarding data fields, allowing operations, credit, and front-office teams to benchmark their internal assessments against peer views without leaving the platform.
- • Onboard+ has become a standard reference point for counterparty workflows in securities finance, and embedding Credit Benchmark data directly into this workflow accelerates adoption and streamlines fund prioritization and onboarding efficiency.
Summary
EquiLend and Credit Benchmark announced a strategic partnership on June 17, 2026, to embed consensus credit ratings into EquiLend's Onboard+ platform, a widely-used counterparty onboarding solution in the securities finance industry. This integration delivers market-wide credit context directly within the operational workflows where onboarding and credit decisions are made, eliminating the need for teams to toggle between separate systems or data sources.
The partnership leverages Credit Benchmark's consensus rating methodology, which aggregates internal credit risk assessments from over 40 leading global financial institutions, with nearly half representing Global Systemically Important Banks (GSIBs). These institutions span North America, continental Europe, Switzerland, the UK, Japan, Canada, Australia, and South Africa, providing genuinely international institutional perspective. For each fund integrated into Onboard+, the platform now displays Credit Benchmark's consensus rating alongside the number of contributing institutions—a critical transparency metric that signals the robustness and breadth of the underlying consensus.
The strategic value of this integration addresses a significant operational gap in securities finance. Many funds, particularly smaller or alternative investment vehicles, lack official agency credit ratings, creating blind spots for counterparty risk assessment. By surfacing consensus ratings derived from the internal models of the world's largest banks and asset managers, Onboard+ users gain a reference point against which to evaluate their own internal ratings and position their firm's credit view relative to industry peers. This peer benchmarking capability enhances the quality and speed of onboarding decisions while reducing operational friction.
Mark Faulkner, Co-Founder of Credit Benchmark, underscored the operational efficiency gains: embedding consensus data natively within Onboard+ accelerates adoption and enables day-to-day decisions to be made with enhanced institutional credit intelligence. By integrating Credit Benchmark's analytics—which already serve many of the largest banks and asset managers—directly into a platform that has become a standard workflow reference for securities finance operations, both companies are positioned to deepen market penetration while improving the credit risk infrastructure underpinning the global securities lending ecosystem.
The partnership leverages Credit Benchmark's consensus rating methodology, which aggregates internal credit risk assessments from over 40 leading global financial institutions, with nearly half representing Global Systemically Important Banks (GSIBs). These institutions span North America, continental Europe, Switzerland, the UK, Japan, Canada, Australia, and South Africa, providing genuinely international institutional perspective. For each fund integrated into Onboard+, the platform now displays Credit Benchmark's consensus rating alongside the number of contributing institutions—a critical transparency metric that signals the robustness and breadth of the underlying consensus.
The strategic value of this integration addresses a significant operational gap in securities finance. Many funds, particularly smaller or alternative investment vehicles, lack official agency credit ratings, creating blind spots for counterparty risk assessment. By surfacing consensus ratings derived from the internal models of the world's largest banks and asset managers, Onboard+ users gain a reference point against which to evaluate their own internal ratings and position their firm's credit view relative to industry peers. This peer benchmarking capability enhances the quality and speed of onboarding decisions while reducing operational friction.
Mark Faulkner, Co-Founder of Credit Benchmark, underscored the operational efficiency gains: embedding consensus data natively within Onboard+ accelerates adoption and enables day-to-day decisions to be made with enhanced institutional credit intelligence. By integrating Credit Benchmark's analytics—which already serve many of the largest banks and asset managers—directly into a platform that has become a standard workflow reference for securities finance operations, both companies are positioned to deepen market penetration while improving the credit risk infrastructure underpinning the global securities lending ecosystem.
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