HedgeWorld Limited, using data and information supplied by 998 hedge fund managers with $104.2 billion in assets, ranked the top 15 prime brokers in terms of assets and number of funds. Morgan Stanley Prime Brokerage ranked #1 by both measures. Some 210 funds with aggregate assets of $32.6 billion named Morgan Stanley as their primary broker, well ahead of Bear Stearns who placed #2 and Goldman Sachs who came in at #3. Also noteworthy, Morgan Stanley ranked highest in terms of assets and number of funds for the $1 billion-plus category. Eight of the 15 funds in this group named Morgan Stanley as their main broker versus three of the 15 citing second-place Bear Stearns (see table below).

The following provides a partial list of the brokers included in the study:

Rank	Firm		(US$ billions)
1	Morgan Stanley Prime Brokerage	32.57
2	Bear Stearns Securities Corp.	22.2
3	Goldman Sachs & Co.	15.64
4	Merrill Lynch	6.50
5	Banc of America	4.23
6	ABN AMRO Inc.	3.66
7	Salomon Smith Barney	2.65
8	Lehman Brothers	1.82
9	UBS PaineWebber Inc.	1.40
10	Chase Securities Inc.	1.33