January 6, 2022
I am a retail investor. It is vital for a free and fair market for market participants such as myself to have access to information regarding loaned shares. These loans can currently be lent by brokers without my knowledge or consent if I am a beneficial owner of the shares, and these loans have the effect of diluting the value of my investments and corrupting the integrity of my votes in security issuer affairs.
Without any public visibility into loaned shares, it is next to impossible to gauge the risk on my investments - and that is not a fair market, it is a market where rules can't be enforced and there is no accountability for cheaters.
Further, it is inappropriate to use a loaned share to close a Failure To Deliver. There is no delivery of a real share in this case. This rule falls short in that regard.
Borrowers must purchase the stocks before lending for short positions.
Borrowers must have a due date when the shares must be returned, or face fines in excess of the value of the shares at the due date.
There is simply no excuse for the inability to track all stocks. Computational scientists have solved these issues long ago and are regularly used in next-gen combinatorial resolution experiments where cellular data is multiplexed. It can easily be implemented.