Which Prime Brokers Do Hedge Funds Use?

65% of hedge funds with a prime broker use at least one of the same three firms: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan. Goldman Sachs alone is named on Form ADV by 2,035 hedge funds, 34.9% of those that report a prime broker, and 45% of funds spread their business across more than one firm.

This count covers the 12,821 hedge funds reported by SEC-registered advisers on Form ADV, from filings through December 31, 2024, the latest period the SEC has published in full. 46% of them name a prime broker.

The 20 prime brokers hedge funds name most

Each fund is counted once for each company it names, so a fund with two prime brokers counts for both, and the shares add up to more than the whole.

Rank	Prime broker	Hedge funds naming it	Share of hedge funds with a prime broker	Gross assets of those funds
1	Goldman Sachs	2,035	34.9%	$5.06 trillion
2	Morgan Stanley	1,732	29.7%	$4.58 trillion
3	J.P. Morgan	1,701	29.2%	$4.75 trillion
4	Bank of America	816	14.0%	$3.79 trillion
5	UBS	552	9.5%	$2.68 trillion
6	Barclays	542	9.3%	$3.84 trillion
7	Citi	528	9.0%	$3.49 trillion
8	BNP Paribas	390	6.7%	$2.74 trillion
9	Fidelity (National Financial Services)	353	6.0%	$1.17 trillion
10	Interactive Brokers	319	5.5%	$87.6 billion
11	Wells Fargo	315	5.4%	$1.34 trillion
12	BNY Pershing	311	5.3%	$1.04 trillion
13	Jefferies	281	4.8%	$171 billion
14	BTIG	217	3.7%	$44.1 billion
15	Deutsche Bank	198	3.4%	$1.49 trillion
16	TD Cowen	136	2.3%	$212 billion
17	HSBC	135	2.3%	$1.12 trillion
18	Societe Generale	95	1.6%	$992 billion
19	Credit Suisse	83	1.4%	$492 billion
20	Marex	80	1.4%	$21.8 billion

Download this table (CSV), free, with every filed name grouped under each prime broker. The full dataset, every hedge fund with its adviser, gross assets and prime brokers, is one email away.

How concentrated prime brokerage is

• The three firms most named on Form ADV reach 65% of hedge funds that report a prime broker.
• 2,615 hedge funds, 45% of those with a prime broker, name more than one firm.
• The filings resolve to named prime brokers for 97% of entries; the rest are smaller firms, kept in the dataset under their filed names.

A fund's prime broker finances its positions, lends it securities and usually holds its assets, so the relationship shapes a manager's financing costs, its counterparty exposure and its operations.

What this means for technology buyers

These guides cover the systems that sit between a hedge fund and its prime brokers:

• Counterparty credit risk platforms: measuring exposure to each prime broker.
• Execution management systems for hedge funds: routing orders across brokers.
• Hedge fund operations platforms for emerging managers: reconciling positions and cash with the prime.
• Transaction cost analysis tools: comparing what each broker costs.

On the other side of the relationship? The Prime Brokerage Business Capabilities Model and the Prime Brokerage Value Streams map what a prime broker does for its clients.

More from Finantrix Atlas

• Largest hedge fund firms
• Who administers private funds
• Largest private fund managers

How this was counted

Form ADV asks each adviser, for every private fund it reports in Schedule D, Section 7.B.(1), to name the fund's prime brokers. This page takes each SEC-registered adviser's latest filing up to December 31, 2024, leaves out advisers whose latest filing is more than fifteen months older, keeps the funds the adviser classifies as hedge funds, and counts every prime broker each one names.

Filed names are grouped by company under two rules checked on every build: no filed name may match two companies, and at least 90% of entries must resolve. A firm is counted under the name the filing uses; changes of ownership the filing does not record are not applied.

Limits

• As of the SEC's latest full release. The SEC publishes Form ADV filing data in periods; the latest runs through December 31, 2024. Prime broker changes since then are not reflected.
• Registered advisers only. Hedge funds advised by exempt reporting advisers are not counted.
• Many hedge funds name no prime broker. 6,986 of them name none, and the form does not say why. Feeder funds, which trade through a master fund, are only 15% of them, so that is not the main reason.
• Counts of funds, not balances. A fund that names a prime broker may keep most of its book with another; the form does not say how business is split.
• Grouping is a judgment. The filed names under each company are in the free table, so any grouping can be checked or redone.

Cite this

Free to quote, cite and republish, including the chart, with credit to Finantrix Atlas and a link to this page.

65% of hedge funds with a prime broker name Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley or J.P. Morgan, according to a Finantrix Atlas analysis of SEC Form ADV filings through December 31, 2024.

45% of hedge funds with a prime broker use more than one, according to Finantrix Atlas analysis of SEC Form ADV data.

Suggested citation: Finantrix Atlas, "Which Prime Brokers Do Hedge Funds Use?", from SEC Form ADV filings through December 31, 2024. https://www.finantrix.com/articles/prime-brokers-hedge-funds

Embed the chart:

<a href="https://www.finantrix.com/articles/prime-brokers-hedge-funds"><img src="https://www.finantrix.com/atlas/prime-brokers-hedge-funds.png" alt="Prime brokers by number of hedge funds, from Finantrix Atlas"></a>
<p>Chart: <a href="https://www.finantrix.com/articles/prime-brokers-hedge-funds">Finantrix Atlas</a>, from SEC Form ADV data.</p>

Frequently asked questions

Q: Which prime broker do the most hedge funds use? A: Goldman Sachs, named by 2,035 hedge funds of SEC-registered advisers in Form ADV filings through December 31, 2024.

Q: Do hedge funds use more than one prime broker? A: Many do. According to SEC Form ADV data, 45% of hedge funds that report a prime broker name more than one firm.