Prime Brokerage in the UK: The Hedge Fund Helper-in-Chief

If hedge funds were high-performance racing teams, prime brokers would be the pit crew, logistics manager, strategy consultant, and occasionally, the one holding the snacks. They don’t drive the car, but without them, the wheels fall off – often quite spectacularly.

Basically, prime brokerage is the bundled support service for hedge funds and other big-ticket investors. It’s a financial Swiss army knife designed to take the operational faff out of trading, so investment managers can focus on what they do best: making (or losing) money in ever more creative ways.

Let’s take a closer look at what prime brokers do, why they matter, and how they fit into the UK’s financial ecosystem.