Posts tagged “prime services”

Nomura Loses Prime Brokerage Head

December 20th, 2010

By Nisha Gopalan (Wall Street Journal)

Just as global hedge funds are ramping up in Asia, Nomura Holdings Inc. has lost its top person for running the prime-brokerage business that banks use to service the industry’s needs.

Tim Wannenmacher, Nomura’s global head of prime services, has resigned, a person familiar with the situation said Friday. Nomura hasn’t announced a successor.

Mr. Wannenmacher, who was based in Hong Kong, resigned for personal reasons, the person said. It wasn’t clear immediately where he’ll be going. Mr. Wannenmacher was previously at Lehman Brothers, and moved to Nomura when the Japanese bank took over the collapsed Wall Street bank’s Asian and European operations.

Prime brokers provide a wide range of services to hedge funds, including helping them set up and trade shares.

Mr. Wannenmacher’s resignation comes as global hedge funds try to beef up their presence in Asia. Billionaire financier and philanthropist George Soros opened a Hong Kong office for his Soros Management Fund LLC fund in November and D.E. Shaw is moving one of its six executive committee members to Hong Kong from New York.

Nomura hasn’t had a high-profile defection since earlier this year, when several former Lehman bankers left after two-year-guaranteed bonuses dating back to the takeover of the U.S. bank’s regional operations in late 2008 expired.

Those departures included Sigurbjorn “Siggi” Thorkelsson, Nomura’s head of equities for the Asian-Pacific region, who’s since gone to Barclays PLC; Thomas Siegmund, its co-head of fixed income for Asia outside Japan, who left for UBS; and Colin Banfield, Nomura’s joint head of investment banking, who moved to Citigroup Inc.

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TradeStation Prime Services Names John Kenealy Vice President of Prime Services Chicago

November 2nd, 2010

TradeStation Prime Services, a division of Tradestation Securities, Inc., is pleased to announce the addition of John Kenealy to its Prime Services team.  Mr. Kenealy will serve as Vice President of TradeStation Prime Services and he will be head of the Chicago office.  John has more than 15 years of sales and brokerage experience; he joined TradeStation Securities in October 2001 as a sales representative and has held several supervisory and management positions. John most recently served as Director of Active Trader Sales for TradeStation. He holds a BS in Management from the State University of New York at Geneseo and the FINRA series 3, 4, 7, 24, 30 and 63 licenses.

“John’s unique background in brokerage sales, as well as his thorough understanding of the TradeStation platform and related trading technology, will complement the Prime Services team.  John will be primarily responsible for developing and servicing Prime brokerage clients in the Chicago area and will help to further refine the overall Prime Services offering,” stated William Katts, co-head of Tradestation Prime Services. “Tradestation is very fortunate that John has chosen to leverage his knowledge and expertise towards this new business line.  We have a growing client base in the Chicago market and continue to expand on the high- touch service we provide our customers,” added Katts.

About TradeStation Prime Services, a division of TradeStation Securities, Inc.

TradeStation Prime Services, a division of TradeStation Securities, Inc., was founded to serve the needs of start-up to mid-sized hedge funds, registered investment advisers, professional traders and asset managers who need quality prime brokerage services, including execution and clearance, securities lending, capital introduction, and “incubation” services.  Clients are offered electronic trading and decision-support platforms, including TradeStation, to analyze their trading strategies and automate or manually place their orders, and may avail themselves of the firm’s NYSE floor membership, which allows it to execute trades on behalf of clients on the NYSE floor as well as in other market centers from its NYSE floor booth/outsourced trading desk. TradeStation Prime Services is located at 400 Madison Avenue, New York, New York.

TradeStation Securities, Inc. (Member NYSE, FINRA, SIPC & NFA) is a licensed, self-clearing securities broker-dealer and a registered omnibus-clearing futures commission merchant, and has memberships or similar approved status (as well as direct connectivity for both market data and order execution) with BATS Z-Exchange, Boston Options Exchange, Chicago Board Options Exchange, Chicago Stock Exchange, EDGA Exchange, EDGX Exchange, International Securities Exchange, NASDAQ OMX BX, NASDAQ OMX PHLX, The NASDAQ Stock Market, NYSE Arca and NYSE Amex.  For futures accounts, TradeStation connects directly (for both market data and order execution) with the CME Group, Eurex Group and ICE Group (U.S. and Europe) exchanges. TradeStation is a clearance member with DTCC and OCC for equities and options, serves its futures accounts on an omnibus clearance basis, and also introduces institutional equities accounts to J. P. Morgan Clearing Corp., as clearance agent.  TradeStation Securities has offices in South Florida, New York, Chicago and Dallas, and an affiliated introducing broker (TradeStation Europe Limited) in London.

For additional information about TradeStation Prime Services, please visit: http://www.tradestationprime.com/. Or contact William Katts 212-847-5951

About TradeStation Group, Inc.

TradeStation Group, Inc. (NASDAQ GS: TRAD), through its principal operating subsidiary, TradeStation Securities, Inc., offers the TradeStation platform to the active trader and certain institutional trader markets. TradeStation is an electronic trading platform that offers state-of-the-art electronic order execution and enables clients to design, test, optimize, monitor and automate their own custom Equities, Options, Futures and Forex trading strategies.  TradeStation Group’s other operating subsidiaries are TradeStation Technologies, Inc. and TradeStation Europe Limited.

Nature of this Announcement

This announcement is made on a limited basis through hedge fund and other institutional trader websites and similar media for promotional/marketing purposes, to educate potential customers of TradeStation Prime Services about its product and service offerings, and is not intended to be an investor relations or public disclosure document for TradeStation’s publicly-traded holding company (TradeStation Group, Inc.).

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TradeStation’s NYSE Floor Operation Implements Buy-Side Institutional Program

September 28th, 2010

Service Focuses on Floor Broker Parity and Transaction Pricing

New York, NY, September 28, 2010 – TradeStation Securities, Inc. (Member NYSE, FINRA, NFA and SIPC), through its TradeStation Prime Services division, recently launched its NYSE Floor operation, including its outsourced trading desk, to help meet the growing demand of hedge funds and other institutional clients who seek to enhance their transaction pricing while providing additional liquidity. The NYSE trading floor features a parity based model when allocating executions allowing market participants to operate a diverse strategy mix including both classic institutional order flow and higher frequency models.

As described by NYSE Euronext on its website, “The NYSE is the only market to offer both high-tech automation for low latency and complete anonymity along with high-touch participation by market professionals to provide orderly opens and closes, lower volatility, deeper liquidity and price improvement opportunities throughout the trading day. This unique combination provides customers with the highest levels of market quality and competitiveness… Brokers on the NYSE Trading Floor leverage their physical point-of sale-presence with information technologies and order management tools to offer customers the benefits of flexibility, judgment, automation and anonymity with minimal market impact.”

As a self-clearing, agency-only broker-dealer now with NYSE Floor capabilities, TradeStation can leverage this technology and its membership by offering, through their Floor Brokers, access to the NYSE Floor along with over 40 pools of liquidity away from NYSE. Active traders, including spread traders and derivatives traders can also integrate their trading strategies into algorithms that Floor Brokers access from their Hand Held Devices that are engineered specifically for the NYSE parity based model.

For additional information about TradeStation Prime Services, please visit: http://www.tradestationprime.com/.

About TradeStation Prime Services, a division of TradeStation Securities, Inc.

TradeStation Prime Services, a division of TradeStation Securities, Inc., was founded to serve the needs of start-up to mid-sized hedge funds, registered investment advisers, professional traders and asset managers who need quality prime brokerage services, including execution and clearance, securities lending, capital introduction, and “incubation” services. Clients are offered electronic trading and decision-support platforms, including TradeStation, to analyze their trading strategies and automate or manually place their orders, and may avail themselves of the firm’s NYSE floor membership, which allows it to execute trades on behalf of clients on the NYSE floor as well as in other market centers from its NYSE floor booth/outsourced trading desk. TradeStation Prime Services is located at 400 Madison Avenue, New York, New York.

TradeStation Securities, Inc. (Member NYSE, FINRA, NFA and SIPC) is a licensed, self-clearing securities broker-dealer and a registered omnibus-clearing futures commission merchant, and has memberships or similar approved status (as well as direct connectivity for both market data and order execution) with BATS Z-Exchange, Boston Options Exchange, Chicago Board Options Exchange, Chicago Stock Exchange, EDGA Exchange, EDGX Exchange, International Securities Exchange, NASDAQ OMX BX, NASDAQ OMX PHLX, The NASDAQ Stock Market, NYSE Arca and NYSE Amex. For futures accounts, TradeStation connects directly (for both market data and order execution) with the CME Group, Eurex Group and ICE Group (U.S. and Europe) exchanges. TradeStation is a clearance member with DTCC and OCC for equities and options, serves its futures accounts on an omnibus clearance basis, and also introduces institutional equities accounts to J. P. Morgan Clearing Corp., as clearance agent. TradeStation Securities has offices in South Florida, New York, Chicago and Dallas, and an affiliated introducing broker (TradeStation Europe Limited) in London.

About TradeStation Group, Inc.

TradeStation Group, Inc. (NASDAQ GS: TRAD), through its principal operating subsidiary, TradeStation Securities, Inc., offers the TradeStation platform to the active trader and certain institutional trader markets. TradeStation is an electronic trading platform that offers state-of-the-art electronic order execution and enables clients to design, test, optimize, monitor and automate their own custom Equities, Options, Futures and Forex trading strategies. TradeStation Group’s other operating subsidiaries are TradeStation Technologies, Inc. and TradeStation Europe Limited.

Nature of this Announcement

This announcement is made on a limited basis through hedge fund and other institutional trader websites and similar media for promotional/marketing purposes, to educate potential customers of TradeStation Prime Services about its product and service offerings, and is not intended to be an investor relations or public disclosure document for TradeStation’s publicly-traded holding company (TradeStation Group, Inc.).

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TradeStation to Add Securities Lending to Its Prime Services Offering

September 21st, 2010

Taps Industry Veteran to Head Sec. Lending Department and Co-Head Division

New York, NY, September 21, 2010 – TradeStation Securities, Inc. (Member NYSE, FINRA, SIPC and NFA) today announced the hiring of Robert Sackett to start up and lead the securities lending department of, and co-head, its TradeStation Prime Services division.

“Securities lending services are a critical component of our plan to build a first-class prime brokerage offering to small and mid-sized hedge funds and other buy-side traders who can no longer receive important prime brokerage services directly from the large firms,” said Salomon Sredni, CEO of TradeStation Group, the parent company of TradeStation Securities. “We believe TradeStation’s position as a self-clearing broker-dealer serving this market allows it to offer a more compelling value proposition compared to other firms that cannot directly provide custody, clearing, settlement and securities lending and must instead rely on the large firms to which they introduce all of their accounts.”

“We believe Rob’s 15 years of experience and relationships in securities lending will allow TradeStation to compete effectively in a market that continues to see industry fragmentation and where small to mid-sized buy-side institutional traders continue to seek prime brokers capable of directly delivering to them basic, critical prime services,” added Lance Baraker, Senior Managing Director and co-head of TradeStation Prime Services.

Mr. Sackett is leaving his position of Managing Director at Citigroup Global Markets Inc. to join TradeStation Prime Services as Senior Managing Director and co-head of the division. He has over 15 years of securities lending experience at Citigroup and its predecessors, and has been a NYSE-approved Securities Lending Representative since 1995 and a NYSE-approved Securities Lending Supervisor since 2002. He is scheduled to begin his employment with TradeStation after the Thanksgiving holiday, following the expiration of his 75-day garden leave period with Citigroup. TradeStation Prime Services expects to begin offering securities lending services in the 2011 first quarter. For additional information about TradeStation Prime Services, please visit: http://www.tradestationprime.com/.

TradeStation Prime Services, a division of TradeStation Securities, Inc., was founded to serve the needs of start-up to mid-sized hedge funds, registered investment advisers, professional traders and asset managers who need quality prime brokerage services, including execution and clearance, securities lending, capital introduction, and “incubation” services. Clients are offered electronic trading and decision-support platforms, including TradeStation, to analyze their trading strategies and automate or manually place their orders, and may avail themselves of the firm’s NYSE floor membership, which allows it to execute trades on behalf of clients on the NYSE floor as well as in other market centers from its NYSE floor booth/outsourced trading desk. TradeStation Prime Services is located at 400 Madison Avenue, New York, New York.
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About TradeStation Prime Services, a division of TradeStation Securities, Inc.
TradeStation Securities, Inc. (Member NYSE, FINRA, SIPC & NFA) is a licensed, self-clearing securities broker-dealer and a registered omnibus-clearing futures commission merchant, and has memberships or similar approved status (as well as direct connectivity for both market data and order execution) with BATS Z-Exchange, Boston Options Exchange, Chicago Board Options Exchange, Chicago Stock Exchange, EDGA Exchange, EDGX Exchange, International Securities Exchange, NASDAQ OMX BX, NASDAQ OMX PHLX, The NASDAQ Stock Market, NYSE Arca and NYSE Amex. For futures accounts, TradeStation connects directly (for both market data and order execution) with the CME Group, Eurex Group and ICE Group (U.S. and Europe) exchanges. TradeStation is a clearance member with DTCC and OCC for equities and options, serves its futures accounts on an omnibus clearance basis, and also introduces institutional equities accounts to J. P. Morgan Clearing Corp., as clearance agent. TradeStation Securities has offices in South Florida, New York, Chicago and Dallas, and an affiliated introducing broker (TradeStation Europe Limited) in London.

About TradeStation Group, Inc.
TradeStation Group, Inc. (NASDAQ GS: TRAD), through its principal operating subsidiary, TradeStation Securities, Inc., offers the TradeStation platform to the active trader and certain institutional trader markets. TradeStation is an electronic trading platform that offers state-of-the-art electronic order execution and enables clients to design, test, optimize, monitor and automate their own custom Equities, Options, Futures and Forex trading strategies. TradeStation Group’s other operating subsidiaries are TradeStation Technologies, Inc. and TradeStation Europe Limited.
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Forward-Looking Statements – Issues, Uncertainties and Risk Factors
This press release contains statements that are forward-looking and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When used in this press release, the word “believe,” “expects,” “plan” and similar expressions, if and to the extent used, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are based largely on current expectations and beliefs concerning future events that are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from the results herein suggested. Factors that may cause or contribute to the various potential differences include, but are not limited to, the company’s new “TradeStation Prime Services” division, generally, including the planned new securities lending department, turning out to be less profitable, less successful, and/or more costly than expected, or resulting in unanticipated claims or liabilities against the company, as a result of (1) Mr. Sackett’s employment, and/or the securities lending department he is expected to head, not beginning or working out as planned and expected, (2) unanticipated start-up or development costs and expenses that are not offset or exceeded by expected revenues as and when planned (or at all), (3) the TradeStation prime services offering generally, and securities lending services particularly, not growing in appeal to prime services clients to the extent the company believes they will, (4) the failure of the company to make timely and quality enhancements to its trading platform, or to offer alternative platforms, which are believed necessary to attract prime services clients to use TradeStation to execute and clear trades, (5) TradeStation’s size and balance sheet being unacceptably small to mid-size and larger prime services clients (which are part of the market segment the company intends to serve) and third-party providers of credit, funding and inventory required for a successful securities lending department, and (6) the general unpredictability of operating results for a start-up business division, particularly given TradeStation’s lack of experience in offering prime brokerage services generally and securities lending in particular.

Contact –

William P. Cahill

President & Chief Operating Officer
TradeStation Securities, Inc.
954-652-7852

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Another Mini-Prime Brokerage Consolidation

September 16th, 2010

Earlier this year, Direct Access Partners LLC, an institutional agency-only brokerage firm, acquired the capital formation team of Channel Capital Group to beef up its new Global Prime Services operation. Now, DAP is continuing the industry-wide mini-prime brokerage consolidation by acquiring EFX Prime Services, formerly a division of First New York Securities. As a result of the acquisition, EFX Prime Services will no longer be a part of First New York Securities.

This second acquisition by DAP is aimed at providing hedge fund clients with an integrated capital introduction and capital raising platform, which the firm claims is a unique offering among correspondent prime brokers. DAP has offices in New York, Boston and Miami.

The deal integrates the EFX Prime Services team into Direct Access Partners including Brian Stutman joining as managing director, Andrew Saunders, who will lead the Capital Introduction program and, Geoff Webster who joins the Prime Operations Group.

“The addition of the EFX Prime team adds significant expertise, strong client relationships and a successful Capital Introduction program to our Global Prime effort,” stated Direct Access Partners CEO, Ben Chinea, in the release. “Working with our proven Capital Raising team, Direct Access Partners is optimally positioned to address the entire spectrum of hedge fund clients – including start-ups, emerging funds and established managers.”

Direct Access Partners Global Prime Services offers a single point of contact for both back-office operations and technology and allows clients to opt for either a single or multi-prime solution with what it considers as well-regarded custodians. Clients of the company are said to have access to various service offerings including multi-asset execution in over 100 global markets, independent research, corporate access, securities lending, capital introduction, capital raising and strategic business consulting.

This latest shakeout in the mini-prime brokerage industry follows closely on the heels of the closing of Lighthouse Financial in August.  Several Lighthouse Financial employees and consultants have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Oregon for mortgage fraud. Goldman Sachs Execution and Clearing LP, embroiled in legal proceedings regarding its role in the Bayou Group bankruptcy, is rumored to be up for sale.

Observers note that the biggest beneficiaries of the mini-brokerage consolidation are self-clearing brokerage firms and trading platforms, which are insulated from the continuing turmoil in the industry.

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Lights Go Out at Lighthouse Prime Services

August 4th, 2010

In an eye-popping surprise, blindsided industry observers are tonight asking: is Lighthouse Financial Group, a broker dealer which includes prime brokerage unit Lighthouse Prime Services, going dark?  It appears it is no longer looking at performing any trading activity, according to inside sources.  The firm is sited in New York.  Reports have been seen that Lighthouse has not been able to pay its employees for a period of weeks.

Lighthouse Prime Services, a division of Lighthouse Financial, specialized in customized prime brokerage, trading and execution, and technology services for high frequency trading groups, small to mid-sized hedge funds and large institutions.  It boasted of its Premier Electronic Execution/ Direct Market Access capabilities and infrastructure, which were set up for seamless order entry, real-time reporting and accounting through selected leading front-end EMS/OMS providers. In the blink of an eye, the entire execution service has disappeared.

Visibly shaken, today Lighthouse informed clients that they could no longer place trades through the firm—they could only sell assets.  The Lighthouse Financial Group’s website is showing the following message: “Effective August 3rd 2010 Lighthouse has suspended trading activities until further notice.” The implications are transparent.

A different source close to the firm gave insight that Lighthouse is in talks with a boutique firm that has eyes on becoming a much larger player and is making a bid for all of the divisions, and an announcement could come as early as this afternoon. If it doesn’t, prospects will be looking even worse.

Lighthouse executives did not see fit to return calls by press time, and one hedge fund that does business with the firm saw no reason to comment on the spectacle.

While Lighthouse Financial Group first saw the light of day in 1999, its prime brokerage unit didn’t come into view until March of 2009. The unit saw to the needs of hedge funds and high-frequency traders, and it is thought to have had between 25-35 hedge fund clients.

Lighthouse’s deathwatch must be especially gloomy to its prime services unit, since last year Hedge Fund Manager Week glaringly saw fit to award it for the “Best Capital Introduction Program for Small Prime Brokers.”  Lighthouse brightly beamed about the award, stating “The award is a clear culmination of a very successful year for Lighthouse Prime which has seen significant growth in new accounts in 2009. Lighthouse Financial has capitalized on the recent dislocation within the financial industry and has been able to amass a potent team of industry professionals to bolster the robust platform consisting of trade execution, effective capital introduction and a fully hosted information technology solutions to their rapidly growing client base of emerging and growing hedge fund managers, while offering the security of custody services through their introducing broker relationship to Goldman Sachs Execution and Clearing.” It is not known yet whether this will also be a black eye for Goldman.

Watchful industry observers are not blind to the irony.

Source

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TradeStation Launches New Brokerage Services Division

July 14th, 2010

TradeStation Headquarters

It used to be that large prime brokers provided one-stop shopping for small to mid-size hedge funds, registered investment advisers, professional traders and asset managers, but that source of services has largely disappeared.  Sensing an opportunity, TradeStation Securities, Inc., a leading electronic brokerage firm for active, professional and certain buy-side institutional traders, today announced the launch of its new TradeStation Prime Services division. TradeStation Prime Services will seek to fill the gap for quality prime brokerage services which are no longer being provided by the larger firms that traditionally served this market segment.

The new division intends to provide a valuable combination of industry-leading execution platforms, including the award-winning TradeStation, reliable clearance and settlement of trades, and first-class service and support, including start-up assistance, outsourced/direct access trading, real-time risk management, portfolio reporting, securities lending, CSA, and capital introductions for its clients. The new division expects to have its first accounts up and running next month.

Also, as the new division grows, TradeStation plans to make valuable enhancements to the TradeStation trading platform that it believes will attract clients to use TradeStation’s trading platform. TradeStation Prime Services plans to serve traders of equities, equity and index options, futures, non-US equities, and forex, making it a powerful solution for institutional traders who seek to trade in any of, or across, those asset classes. TradeStation Securities currently offers the clearing and custody services of J.P. Morgan Clearing Corp. (for equities and options) and R.J. O’Brien & Associates LLC (for futures).

TradeStation Prime Services will be co-headed by Lance Baraker and William Katts, as senior managing directors, both of whom have significant experience running prime services operations in New York. Mr. Baraker and Mr. Katts will run the division from a new TradeStation office in mid-town Manhattan, and will seek to take advantage of TradeStation’s office presences in South Florida, Chicago, Richardson/Dallas, and London to attract new clients. TradeStation will also now have a full membership and direct access operation on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange to accommodate clients who make some of their trades on the NYSE floor.

“We believe that our award-winning trading platform technology, ability to provide custody and clearing, and the strength of our balance sheet will give us a strong offering to the small- to mid-sized hedge funds and investment advisers who need services no longer being provided by the larger firms,” said Salomon Sredni, CEO of TradeStation Group, in a company release.

“This is a market opportunity for TradeStation that did not really exist until recently, and we look forward to maximizing the value we believe we can create by entering this segment of the institutional trader space.”

“We are extremely excited about joining TradeStation,” added Baraker. “The downfall of many financial firms in 2008 has created a rare opportunity for another custodian to enter and succeed in the prime brokerage market. William and I look forward to combining our experience and relationships built over the years with TradeStation’s industry-leading technology to create a leading, powerful prime brokerage platform for the buy-side institutional trader.”

Source

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Survey Says Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse Are The Best Prime Brokers, Again

June 23rd, 2010

Credit Suisse Group and Deutsche Bank were named the best prime brokerages for the second year in a row, according to Global Custodian’s annual survey. Rated just below the co-winners were Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

The rankings were reported by Global Custodian, a leading magazine covering the international securities services business. The magazine based its rankings on a mix of financing, technology, client services, margining and other categories. Credit Suisse is known for favoring larger clients (over $5B in assets) compared to Deutsche Bank.

The survey polled over 3,200 respondents, about 55% more than last year and 12% more than in 2008. As the magazine sought to interview as many hedge funds as possible, the increase in responses suggests the sector continues to rebound from its 2008 woes.

The two European bank’s stability in capital and personnel through the global financial crisis earned them the trust of many hedge funds.

“Coming out of the crisis, hedge funds seek strong bank providers who will deliver not only a first-in-class service but maintain a steady hand for them into and through the next crisis,” Philip Vasan, Credit Suisse’s global head of prime services, told Dow Jones Newswires.

The Swiss bank has climbed the rankings over the past few years, jumping from 7th in 2008. The survey found that Credit Suisse was favored among bigger funds with assets over $5 billion, while Deutsche Bank fared better among those below $5 billion.

“For funds less than $1 billion, we haven’t deserted them during the down cycle. In fact, we have stepped up investments in the segment and are playing more aggressive to cater to the needs of the start-ups,” Jon Hitchon, a Co-Head of Deutsche Bank’s Global Prime Finance, told Dow Jones Newswires. “Our synthetic platform is also attractive to larger funds which tend to be more balance sheet intensive.”

While funds continue to recover from their recent dark age, liquidity is still hard to come by as investors remain cautious about risk. Deutsche Bank said it looks to satisfy hedge funds’ service needs as well as funding needs.

“We have a flexible balance sheet to finance hedges’ needs. This is more relevant these days as our clients are only leveraged up to a third of their assets on average,” Hitchon added.

Results from the survey, the most closely watched in the hedge-fund industry, are presented in a format similar to the popular Zagat restaurant guides, with direct quotes from participants making up a bulk of the commentary on each company. The survey breaks down prime brokers’ performance based on region and assets under management of the funds they service, along with whether the funds are single- or multi-strategy. It gives prime brokers “best in class” awards for good scores in individual categories.

Global Custodian also sheds light on other statistics, such as what percentage a prime broker is a particular fund’s main or sole broker. But as hedge funds are more worried about counterparty risk highlighted during the financial crisis, more fund managers have switched to using multiple prime brokerages.

Source

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