Standard Bank starts prime broker to gain from hedge fund growth
Standard Bank Group, Africa’s largest lender by assets, plans to start a prime brokerage next month to benefit from regulatory changes in SA it expects will boost the hedge fund industry. The bank anticipates having five hedge fund clients by the end of the year, said Andy Hall, head of global markets at Standard Bank. The bank will compete against Peregrine Holdings and units of FirstRand, Deutsche Bank, Investec and Barclays Africa Group. "There’s still a big bite to eat in the significant growth we expect in hedge funds," he said in an interview on Tuesday. The lender is also being encouraged by guidelines recommending asset managers hire more than one prime broker, Hall said. The business forms a small but important part of Standard Bank’s efforts to improve cost efficiencies and add clients within its global markets unit, which accounted for about 20% of the lender’s earnings before one-time items in 2016. The global markets division oversees the company’s trading activities on...
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