A recent academic paper examined how the composition of mutual fund boards and the use of affiliated lending agents correlate with security lending returns.  The paper states:

Using manually collected security lending index mutual fund data covering the period from 2003 to 2009, we find that security lending returns are dramatically lower when funds use sponsor affiliated lending agents, when mutual fund boards are larger, and when director pay is high. In contrast, we find more independent boards, more gender diverse boards, and boards whose directors own more shares of the funds they oversee are all associated with higher lending returns. Additional testing reveals that security lending returns are significantly higher when funds administer their own lending programs. These results have implications for mutual fund boards as they consider lending proposals from affiliated agents and for possible future regulatory actions.