March 13 (Reuters) - EquiLend, a fintech at the heart of

securities lending on Wall Street, said on Thursday it has

secured a minority investment from an affiliate of U.S. banking

giant BNY.

The securities lending industry enables investors to borrow

and lend stocks, bonds and other assets to facilitate liquidity

management and trading strategies.

Major banks, asset managers and hedge funds rely on

securities lending to optimize portfolio returns and meet

regulatory capital requirements.

EquiLend is partly owned by some of Wall Street's biggest

heavyweights, including Goldman Sachs ( GS ), BlackRock ( BLK ),

JPMorgan Chase ( JPM ) and Bank of America Merrill Lynch

.

BNY, along with eight other major financial institutions

that hold strategic investments in EquiLend, will advise it on

advancing innovation and improving efficiency in the industry,

the fintech said.

"We are confident in EquiLend's central role in the

marketplace and plans to further redefine securities finance

with innovative market infrastructure," said Nehal Udeshi, BNY's

head of securities finance.

The global securities finance industry generated $703

million in revenue for lenders in February, a report by

DataLend, the market data service of EquiLend, showed earlier

this month.

EquiLend, which was formed in 2001 by a consortium of global

financial institutions and went live in 2002, provides

securities finance technology and services.

It counts nearly 200 firms as clients, including asset

owners, agency lending banks, broker-dealers and hedge funds.