RBC Capital Markets today announced it has completed the formation of the RBC global prime services group to provide dedicated and comprehensive support to hedge fund managers, mutual fund managers and institutional asset managers via a single platform.

”We recognize that the lines between hedge fund and traditional institutional managers are becoming more obscure as their needs become more similar — hedge funds are going public and no longer using only long/short strategies, traditional fund managers are launching 130/30 funds, using leverage and shorting, while institutional managers need more robust services,” says Jeremy Frommer, head of RBC global prime services. “We decided to break down silos by bringing together, under a single umbrella, everything from prime brokerage to trading technology, securities lending to capital introductions, as well as financing.”

The formation of the new business unit, featuring a single-point-of-contact customer service platform, comes as fund managers, traders and other counterparties are seeking prime brokerage and service providers with strong credit quality and stability on which they can depend.

The global prime services group, which has made a substantial investment in technology this year, has seen a 20% increase in clients and a related increase in assets under management in the past six months. The group brings together services recently launched by RBC as well as several operational units with a strong record of serving RBC clients, including: RBCAccel, a multi-asset class proprietary trading platform; the RBC capital introduction group; and the RBC global futures & base metals group.