RBC Capital Markets has completed the formation of its Global Prime Services Group, designed to consolidate support for hedge fund managers, mutual fund managers and institutional asset managers through a single platform.
The Global Prime Services Group will merge services and operational units recently launched by RBC as well as existing units. These include RBCAccel, a multi-asset proprietary trading platform;
the RBC Capital Introduction Group, which works closely with investors to partner them with hedge fund managers, and the RBC Global Futures and Base Metals Group.
“We decided to break down silos by bringing together everything from prime brokerage to trading technology, securities lending to capital introductions, as well as financing, ” said Jeremy Frommer, head of RBC Global Prime Services, in a statement.
He added, “We recognise that the lines between hedge fund and traditional institution managers are becoming more obscure as their needs become more similar. Hedge funds are going public and no longer using long/short strategies, traditional fund managers are launching 130/30 funds using leverage and shorting, while institutional managers need more robust services.”
The new business unit comes at a time when RBC believes fund managers, traders and other counterparties are seeking prime brokerage and services providers with strong credit quality.
RBC says it has made a substantial investment in technology for the service and has seen a 20% increase in clients and a related increase in assets under management in the last six months.