24/02/2010 Author: Tony Griffiths

Deutsche managed account to introduce multi-primes

Deutsche Bank is poised to offer multiple prime brokerage relationships to clients on its $8bn managed accounts platform, HFMWeek can exclusively reveal.   

An agreement is in place with four unnamed, high-profile prime brokers, which will enable clients to pick the nature and extent of their multi-prime set-up. Deutsche – currently the sole prime broker on the platform – will not to impose itself as the leading prime in the new set-up, with investors free to choose their own ‘house-prime’ from among the five on offer. The multi-prime offering is expected to go live in three-to-four months.   

“We are in constant dialogue with our clients to understand their requirements and determine how best to develop our product offering to suit their needs,” Martin Fothergill, director of hedge fund derivatives, said. “As part of this ongoing programme of improvements to the platform we are now adding a number of additional prime brokers.”

The hedge funds on the Deutsche Bank platform currently oversee around $8bn in AuM divided between the offering’s two subdivisions: $4.5bn on the more traditional, 45-fund-strong X-markets division; and $3.5bn on the FX/CTA specialist, 91-fund-strong DB Select. The entire platform, which is currently at its historical peak, received over $3bn in inflows during 2009.

According to Danny Caplan, who will head up the platform’s newly created sales team, over 20% of inflows into the hedge fund industry in 2010 will be via managed accounts.

Deutsche Bank is the last of the acknowledged managed account platforms to offer a multi-prime option.