Who Has the Top Prime Brokerage Assets?

For those wondering who has the most prime brokerage assets, below is a table from a good read in today's Wall Street Journal. As shown, at the end of 2006, Morgan Stanley (MS) had the most prime brokerage assets at $153 billion. Bear Stearns (BSC) was ranked second at $136 billion, followed by Goldman (GS), UBS AG (UBS) and Credit Suisse (CS).

One of the main reasons Bear failed is because a number of its large buyside clients pulled their money out of Bear's prime brokerage and moved them to others. With word that Citadel, Renaissance and a number of other large hedge funds moved their money out of Bear, who knows how low Bear's prime brokerage assets fell in recent weeks. With Bear priced at $2 a share, it's pretty clear that its assets fell significantly.

Now with Bear out of the picture and JPMorgan (JPM) running what is left of the assets, it means other brokerage firms have seen increases in their prime brokerage assets. You have to think that the brokers that are able to make it through this mess will end up in even better positions.

Comments

[Jason Rines...:]

I heard UBS was down 11%. I believe Morgan Stanley dropped a buttload of this toxic stuff way early. As for GS, your talking hundreds of billions of liquidity, their stock will also take a big hit, but will survive more then intact.

2008 Mar 17 09:48 AM

[ayn:]

DO you really want your prime broker to be an investment bank too? Or is it safer to go with someone that can be both more flexible and more objective with the custody of your assets.

2008 Mar 22 09:58 PM

[Richard Wilson:]

I wonder how this has shifted now, from what I hear from hedge fund managers the flight to a high quality name like Goldman is moving some accounts.

- Richard

2008 Jun 28 03:52 PM