Morgan Stanley Prime Brokerage took the top spot as best prime broker in the 14th annual Global Custodian survey for the second year in a row. The magazine cited "another outstanding performance by Morgan Stanley," with scores up in all nine service areas, with the editors noting that "no global firm scores higher on client service" and that the Firm "scores consistently across all sizes, geographies and strategies."

Prime Brokerage won the most "best in class" awards for excellence in servicing, taking 81 out of 90 awards. The group was top rated in all 10 categories, with the highest overall scores for value, consulting, client service, operations and technology.

Services areas included:

• client service
• operations
• consulting
• financing
• securities lending
• reporting
• capital introduction
• technology
• value

The win adds to a banner year for Prime Brokerage. The group recently took home:

• Institutional Investor's Alpha magazine's best global prime broker award for the second year running, in September 2006
• Asia Investor's best Asian prime broker for the second year running, in December
• ISF's best borrower for the sixth year running, in September 2006
• the Albourne awards in August 2006

The group provides services to 82 of the largest 100 hedge funds, has more than 1,000 clients globally and services several hundred billion in client assets. A new office was recently opened in Singapore, taking the number of prime brokerage locations to 10.