The industry’s revenue from prime brokerage is expected to hit a record $30.8 billion this year and European banks are hustling to get a bigger piece of that action, writes Bloomberg.
BNP Paribas, for example, is betting an army of 500 coders will be able to help it grab more market share in the growing business of prime brokerage. The French bank has been adding dozens of software engineers to help it develop a new platform that determines how much margin it requires hedge fund clients to keep on hand.
Already, the division has amassed more than half a trillion dollars worth of prime balances and has a line of sight to add another $40 billion by year end.