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Barclays
e have had outstanding experience with the people at
“ WBarclays for client service ,” says a client . “ Everyone is very responsive and eager to get the answers we need .” Another respondent name-checks his relationship manager for doing “ an outstanding job on being our advocate within Barclays and delivering us value and excellent service .” A third writes simply of an “ amazing platform , very happy with Barclays .” As it happens , however , Barclays does better in sales and marketing ( where it is judged mainly by what it charges its clients and how it measures its return on their assets ) than client service . But where the bank actually tops-scores is in stock borrowing , with respondents agreeing Barclays outperforms in the two most important tests of a stock loan provider : excellent access to hard-to-borrows and minimal recalls of stocks on loan . A client adds that the Barclays stock loan desk “ do an amazing job to provide accurate colour and keep us in names that trade special .” The clearing services of the bank are assessed by a smaller contingent of respondents , but Barclays was an early adopter of specialised agency clearing services when post-crisis regulation drove swaps into a cleared environment , and the excellent scores suggest the additional experience is paying off . The futures business is almost as highly rated , though the detail suggests clients are still looking for tighter integration of both derivatives businesses with their equity and fixed income counterparts ( an issue of longstanding in the prime brokerage industry that is far from peculiar to Barclays ). The score in fixed income in particular – where respondents judge providers mainly by execution – is impressive . Barclays would prefer to be judged on the quality of its cash and synthetic equity and fixed income financing , and the financing score certainly does not embarrass the bank . Its margin netting policy is not unnoticed either . This pattern is likely to persist , given that financing hedge funds has become a major contributor to the overall performance of the bank . Importantly , given that asset safety and access to finance are not easy to combine , Barclays also collects points for an approach to asset safety that revolves around legal entities . The banks will be disappointed , though , by the collective assessment of its foreign exchange prime brokerage platform , which includes a choice of give-up , trading through the BARX electronic platform , or being routed to the major FX platforms . The issue , of course , is not execution but cost , including transaction costs as well as collateral . The wider foreign exchange markets are undergoing a potentially far-reaching structural change , and even a bank with such an entrenched position must be mindful of changing attitudes on the buy-side and new entrants on the sell-side . The verdict on capital introductions is also less than generous , though a client notes that Barclays has “ been helpful in the UK and Switzerland .” The bank looks mainly to its institutional investor sales people to marry capital to managers , which is not always the perspective managers prefer , though Barclays says it also helps funds position themselves with likely sources of capital . Where the bank will be happier with the outcome , given its Lehman heritage and what it now offers as “ quantitative prime services ,” is the scoring of its trading and execution services . The detail suggests technical improvement is always possible , but no respondent is suggesting the Barclays model is anything but fair to them . That is a deeply reassuring sign , given the recent history of the parent bank .
19 %
By size
52 %
29 %
Weighted average scores
PROFILE OF RESPONDENTS
Large Medium Small
24 %
By location
2016 2017 2018 5.54 5.43 5.64
Weighted average scores by service area Service area
5 %
71 %
Weighted average score
Americas Europe and Middle East Asia
+/ - the global average
Capital introductions 4.80 -10.5 % Client service 5.73 -4.7 % Consulting N / A N / A Operations 5.75 -3.6 % Technology 5.09 -9.0 % Product development 5.60 2.6 % Risk management 5.13 -7.8 % Asset safety 5.21 -9.2 % Sales and marketing 6.08 -0.8 % Trading and execution 5.86 0.2 % Delta 1 , swaps and financing 5.79 1.2 % Stock borrowing and lending 6.28 5.3 % Foreign exchange prime brokerage 5.01 -11.6 % Fixed income 6.14 6.5 % OTC clearing 6.24 6.7 % Listed derivatives 6.02 2.3 % Total 5.64 -2.8 %
76 Global Custodian The Hedge Fund Annual 2018