It's not news that the bulge bracket prime brokerage industry is in turmoil. Most assume that the likes of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley and even those in the second tier are scaling back a bit. So lots of smaller players sense an opportunity.

One such player, Concept Capital Markets, aims to attract business by returning to tradition in some ways: It aims to field a strong research offering and rely more on high-touch trading as opposed to electronic trading. The firm senses the economic pressures on the buyside, which will want to outsource to traders that they trust to work orders. Sounds like the old days. Not that technology will not be key; it will roll out a new front-end for hedge funds soon. We'll see how much business there will be to go around.

For more:
- here's the article [1]

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Prime brokerage news from FierceFinanceIT [2]