Collateral mobility, intraday repo and the next phase of market evolution

As firms face higher funding costs, tighter capital requirements and growing pressure on balance sheet efficiency, intraday repo is emerging as a more precise way to manage short-term liquidity. New research suggests that even modest use of distributed ledger repo could materially reduce intraday liquidity buffer needs highlighting both the commercial case for innovation and the growing importance of collateral mobility.

Precision matters more in today’s funding market

For years, many firms have used overnight borrowing to solve intraday liquidity needs. It is a practical workaround, but often an inefficient one, effectively a 24-hour solution to a 4-hour problem. In today’s environment, that mismatch matters more. Funding costs remain elevated, capital is under pressure, and firms are looking for ways to manage liquidity with greater precision.

That is one reason intraday repo is gaining attention. Broadridge’s latest whitepaper with Finadium found that using intraday distributed ledger repo for just 15 percent of activity could reduce intraday liquidity buffer needs by 8 to 17 percent. In a business where even small improvements in liquidity and balance sheet efficiency can have meaningful commercial value, that is a significant result.

It also points to a broader market issue. In securities finance, the challenge is not always collateral scarcity. More often, it is collateral mobility.

Collateral is available but it does not always move easily

Many firms hold assets with clear economic value, yet not every asset can be mobilised easily when and where it is needed. Assets may work well from an economic perspective, but they do not always move efficiently across counterparties, systems and settlement processes. When that happens, premium collateral becomes trapped, funding flexibility is reduced and balance sheet efficiency suffers.

This is becoming more important as markets demand more agility. When liquidity needs change during the day, firms need to be able to move collateral quickly, efficiently and with confidence. If they cannot, they may be forced into less precise or more expensive funding choices.

That is why collateral mobility is becoming a defining issue in repo and why the market is paying closer attention to the infrastructure that supports it.

Why the repo infrastructure conversation is changing

The discussion around distributed ledger technology in capital markets has matured significantly. The focus is no longer on whether the technology is interesting, or whether it may one day have a role in financial market infrastructure. The more relevant question now is where it can solve real operational and economic problems at scale.

Repo is one of the clearest examples.

Traditional repo workflows are robust, but they can still involve fragmented records, multiple process handoffs and operational friction that limit transparency and agility. Those constraints matter in conventional repo activity, but they become even more relevant when firms want to support more precise and shorter-duration funding models such as intraday repo.

A distributed ledger approach offers a different model. With a shared record of transactions and the ability to support atomic settlement, it can help reduce reconciliation friction, improve visibility and support more efficient movement of cash and collateral across the transaction lifecycle. The opportunity is not simply to digitise an existing process. It is to create the infrastructure for a more connected and responsive funding market.

Intraday repo is where the use case becomes real

This is where collateral mobility and distributed ledger repo come together most clearly.

If firms can borrow cash intraday, mobilise collateral intraday and return both intraday in a coordinated and operationally robust way, repo becomes a much more precise liquidity tool. Instead of tying up resources longer than necessary, firms can align financing more closely to actual need. That can improve balance sheet efficiency, reduce reliance on external funding and create more flexibility in how collateral is deployed throughout the day.

The significance of our recent whitepaper analysis is that it puts numbers behind that opportunity. Even modest adoption of intraday DLR has the potential to improve liquidity efficiency in a measurable way. In an environment where firms are under constant pressure to optimise capital and funding, this is the kind of use case that moves distributed ledger repo from theory to practical relevance.

This is no longer a conceptual discussion

Just as importantly, distributed ledger repo is no longer an abstract innovation theme.

Broadridge’s Distributed Ledger Repo platform processed an average of $354 billion in daily repo transactions in March 2026, with total monthly volumes of nearly $8 trillion. Average daily volume was up 392 percent year over year. Those numbers show that tokenized settlement in repo is not sitting at the edge of the market. It is scaling in the institutional mainstream.

That scale matters because repo market adoption depends on more than technological promise. Participants need confidence that new infrastructure can support real business activity, connect into the broader market ecosystem and deliver operational benefits in practice. The growth of DLR suggests that the market is moving beyond proof of concept and into a new stage of practical deployment.

The ecosystem is becoming ready

The supporting market structure is also evolving.

Dealers are onboard. Buy-side firms are active. Market infrastructures are integrating. Industry associations are engaged. Regulators across Asia, Europe and the United States are advancing digital asset frameworks. Taken together, those developments indicate that the ecosystem is becoming increasingly ready for broader adoption of tokenized settlement and distributed ledger-based financing models.

That matters because repo does not evolve in isolation. It sits at the centre of funding, collateral and balance sheet management. New models only gain traction when they can work across that wider operating environment.

Why collateral mobility is the lens that matters

For repo, collateral mobility provides one of the clearest ways to understand where the market is heading.

The issue is often not access to assets, but the ability to move them economically and operationally when required. Some of the most valuable collateral in the system can become trapped because it is difficult to mobilise quickly enough, or because doing so introduces too much friction. When firms can unlock that movement, they improve funding flexibility and free up premium collateral for more effective use elsewhere.

Distributed ledger repo has the potential to address this by reducing some of the structural inefficiencies built into traditional processing models. A shared ledger can create a more consistent view of trade state across participants. Atomic settlement can reduce execution risk and improve confidence in the movement of cash and securities. Better synchronisation can support faster decision-making and more agile liquidity management.

These are practical advantages, not theoretical ones.

Leadership will be defined by delivery, not discussion

In a world of elevated funding costs and tighter balance sheet constraints, the ability to source liquidity only for the time it is actually needed becomes increasingly valuable. Instead of relying on overnight borrowing for an intraday requirement, firms can move toward a model that reflects the true timing of their liquidity needs. That is better economics, better balance sheet usage and potentially better control.

Leadership in this space therefore depends on more than recognising market direction. It depends on the ability to operationalise that future.

Broadridge is helping lead the market in applying distributed ledger technology to repo at institutional scale. DLR is not a theoretical model or a limited pilot. It is a live and growing liquidity and collateral marketplace, supporting expanding use cases and demonstrating that tokenized settlement can deliver meaningful value in core financing activity. With nearly $8 trillion processed in March and strong year-over-year growth, the market now has clear evidence that distributed ledger repo is achieving adoption at scale.

The next question for the repo market

The broader significance is that repo is beginning to move beyond simple process digitisation. The conversation is shifting toward infrastructure that can support a more precise, mobile and dynamic funding market. That is particularly relevant for firms thinking about the future of collateral usage, liquidity efficiency and intraday financing.

The question now is no longer whether this shift is coming. The signals are increasingly clear. The real question is who will lead it.

For firms across repo, collateral and treasury, the answer may depend on how quickly they move to address the mobility problem. Collateral is not scarce. Mobility is. Solving that challenge could unlock more efficient funding, more effective use of balance sheet and a more responsive repo market overall. And as intraday repo gains traction, it may prove to be one of the clearest examples yet of how new infrastructure can deliver measurable advantage in an increasingly demanding market.