UBS AG (UBS) is starting a unit aimed at attracting clients among quantitative hedge funds, combining services from its prime brokerage and direct-execution trading businesses.
Scott Stickler in New York will be global head of the operation, called UBS Quant HQ. Strategies across equities, options and futures will be supported with fixed income and foreign exchange to be added later, he said. The business targets startups and established funds with long-short or hedged strategies and those focused on arbitrage.
Investment firms formed as a result of regulations to curb risk-taking within banks are looking for help with technology consulting services, trading and financing, according to Stickler, who was hired in July 2011. The unit began working with more than a dozen hedge-fund clients in the second quarter as it prepared for the Quant HQ introduction, he said.
“One of the trends we’re seeing is a number of startups, folks coming out of big banks because of the Volcker rule and starting their own hedge funds,” Stickler said in a phone interview. “Clients are coming to us who wanted us to be in this business and who want to be able to take advantage of our global presence and our counterparty safety, stock-loan and execution capabilities.”
