Icap, an interdealer broker, this morning put itself in direct competition with European exchange Euronext and US bank State Street with the launch of an electronic trading platform for stock lending.

The new platform, called i-Sec, enables Icap customers to lend and borrow UK, European and Japanese equities, which between them account for 60% of the global market estimated by analysts to exceed $3.5 trillion (€2.58 trillion).