Survey: Hedge fund managers dissatisfied with prime brokers

More than half (55%) of those surveyed say their prime broker doesn’t offer the appropriate technology to help raise capital for their firms, compared with 30% of the firms who say their prime broker provides this service.  In addition, while nearly all hedge fund managers believe that capital introduction plays an important role when selecting a prime broker, most hedge fund managers are dissatisfied with their current level of capital introductions. 

On a scale from one to five, with five as the highest and one as the lowest in terms of satisfaction, hedge fund managers gave it a rating of 2.2. 

Other highlights of the survey include:

• The majority of the survey respondents (75%) use managed account programs, with more than half (55%) noting their firms have benefited from these types of programs.
• On a scale ranging from one to five, with five as the highest and one as the lowest, most of the firms experience an above-average level of satisfaction (a 3.6 rating with their managed account program).
• Forty-three percent of the hedge fund managers cited relinquishing transparency to investors as the primary reason their firms do not use managed account programs. 
• Half of the firms report no loss in scale of their trading strategies and counterparty relationships due to using managed account programs, compared with 10% which do experience the problem.
• Only about one-third of the respondents use a multi-prime structure. The remainder used a single-prime broker.