The headquarters of Bank of America Corp in Charlotte, North Carolina, the US. The second-biggest US bank by assets has captured 9.8% of Asian equity trading adjusted by commissions, according to Greenwich Associates.
Bloomberg
Bank of America Corp and CLSA were named the year’s top equity brokerages in Asia as they won the most business from fund managers in the region, according to Greenwich Associates.
Bank of America, the second-biggest US bank by assets, captured 9.8% of Asian equity trading adjusted by commissions, while CLSA had 9.6%, according to the report e-mailed to news organisations yesterday. The market share of the top 10 brokerages has fallen to 76% from an estimated 83.5% in 2007, the report showed.
“Over the coming years, foreign banks will face tougher competition in Asia from emerging banks,” said Andrew Clarke, director of trading at Mirabaud Securities Asia in Hong Kong. “Chinese, Hong Kong, Singaporean, Malaysian and Australian firms are all out for more Asian business and they will get it.”
Bank of America and Hong Kong-based CLSA, a unit of Citic Securities Co, led their rivals in a year where Japanese and Hong Kong trading volumes have faltered as China’s economy slows and optimism over Japan’s stimulus policies fades.
Average daily volumes for 2014 on the Nikkei 225 Stock Average are down 33% from a year earlier, while those on Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index have dropped 1.3%, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 4% this year, poised for its first annual drop since 2011.
UBS Group was third in Greenwich’s brokerage ranking with a 9% market share, followed by Credit Suisse Group’s 8.3%. Morgan Stanley was next with an 8.1% share, while Goldman Sachs Group rounded out the top six brokerages with 7.6%.
The study was based on interviews with 238 Asian equity fund managers and analysts, 110 traders, and 35 users of equity derivative products at institutions based in Asia.
“These rankings do matter to some brokers as their bonus depends on it,” Mirabaud’s Clarke said.
For Asian equity research and advisory services, Hong Kong- based CLSA won 9.3% of the commission-weighted vote from survey respondents, the Greenwich report showed. Bank of America, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, had 9.1%.
“As attractive as the Asian equity business appears, attempting to crack the ranks of leading brokers at this point is a daunting task requiring sizable outlays just to enter a playing field already crowded with entrenched competitors,” Greenwich said in the report.
The firm, based in Stamford, Connecticut, was started in 1972 and provides research and advisory services to the financial services industry.