Latest Surveys

The 17th annual Global Custodian survey of the clients of prime brokers, published today, provides a first assessment of an industry emerging from the trauma of the financial markets crisis of 2007-08. It finds both change and continuity. Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank, the two major beneficiaries of the anxieties of the last quarter of 2008 and the early months of 2009, have definitively emerged as industry leaders. But it also shows that Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, which dominated the industry going into the crisis, have retained industry leadership.

“Credit Suisse is grateful to our clients for their naming us the world's best-in-class prime broker for the second consecutive year,” says Philip Vasan, managing director, prime services, at Credit Suisse in New York. “Our promise to them remains to deliver a premium offering that meets standards that they and their investors can look back on years from now with pride. We continue to focus on a select client base of established firms and marquee start-ups, to give them the best of not only Credit Suisse but the market, to maintain the steadiest hand over the cycles, and to help them outperform both in the bottom line and the business around it.”

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The 15th Global Custodian Hedge Fund Administration Survey is published today. It provides a snapshot of an industry which, unlike other parts of the securities services industry, has continued to fragment even as it has consolidated.

Responses were received this year on behalf of 81 administrators, 2 more than a year ago, when the hedge fund industry was still struggling with the immediate aftermath of the financial markets crisis. They range in size from the smallest, administering less than $500 million, to Citco, with assets under administration of $570 billion.

The chief cause of fragmentation is, ironically, consolidation. Larger administrators prefer larger clients, creating a niche for smaller administrators to service small to medium sized funds. This trend is reinforced by the increasing volume of institutional money invested in larger hedge funds. Institutional investors demand institutional quality administrators.

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