In This Article
Why Demand for Prime Brokerage Is Surging in Asia-Pacific in 2026
The defining challenge for hedge funds operating in the Asia-Pacific region in 2026 is not access to opportunity. It’s the infrastructure required to capture it.
APAC is booming as global investors have reallocated capital to the region, seeking hedges against US trade policy, tariffs, and ongoing geopolitical uncertainty.
In 2025, the most dramatic example of the region’s growth was the resurgence of Hong Kong’s public markets, which roared back to life after a post-Covid lull. Renewed investor appetite propelled the city’s stock exchange to the global number one initial public offering destination. IPO proceeds rose more than 220%, daily value of equity shares trading doubled, and the market raised $36.7 billion across 119 listings.
And it’s not just Hong Kong. The city is widely seen as a bellwether for broader regional growth, and the data supports that view. In 2025, In 2025, total value of equity shares trading rose by 88.8% across APAC, compared to 38.1% in the Americas and 11.4% in EMEA, according to World Federation of Exchanges data. This surge was driven by activity across the region’s major exchanges — Shenzhen, Shanghai, Japan Exchange Group, Taiwan, Korea, and Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing. The breadth of participation underscores that this is not a single-market story.
This sustained growth also points to future resilience. Despite ongoing geopolitical and macroeconomic pressures — including conflict in Iran that threatens oil-dependent economies — APAC is expected to maintain its momentum. Forecasts for 2026 continue to signal expansion, reinforcing APAC’s position as the standout growth story in global markets.
Scaling Faster Than the Infrastructure: Why Brokers Need Better Systems
For hedge funds, this environment has presented a rich pipeline of early-stage opportunities. Fund giants like Millennium Management, Jane Street, and Qube have returned to the city, often as lynchpin investors, to get in on the ground floor of newly public companies.
However, the buy-side’s sudden return of interest has exposed strain in the ecosystem: a talent crunch in the specialist services these financial institutions rely on. During the pandemic, many banks scaled back services and are now under pressure to meet revived demand. One very public example of this strain: the financial press is reporting that under-resourced banks and law firms are filing poorly-prepared IPO paperwork, prompting escalating warnings from regulators.
Prime brokerage is no exception. Demand for PB services in APAC is rising as funds look for broader market access, diversified counterparty exposure, and integrated multi-asset financing. Yet many platforms, particularly mid-tier institutions, are struggling to keep pace. Many PB platforms are not built for markets where hedge funds routinely trade across multiple markets and instruments.
The operational implications are immediate: onboarding delays, fragmented workflows, limited visibility into risk, and rising overheads. The sell side needs infrastructure that can flex with shifting market structure, not just patch over gaps. APAC banks do not have years to build or retrofit their own systems.
Solving the APAC Prime Brokerage Problem With Technology
Addressing this challenge requires more than incremental upgrades. It demands a shift from fragmented, product-specific systems to unified, multi-asset infrastructure – and, critically, the ability to deploy that at speed.
TS Imagine’s PrimeOne platform, designed by prime brokerage veterans, gives financial institutions a modernized, unified PB infrastructure. TS Imagine builds for both buy-side and sell-side institutions, approaching prime brokerage holistically — not as isolated workflows but as part of a broader trading and financing ecosystem.
PrimeOne benefits from:
- Speed to market — a complete PB build without multi-year timelines.
- Multi-asset coverage — supporting physical and synthetic prime brokerage, securities lending, repo, swaps, margin management, and real-time risk in a single system.
- Cloud-native scalability — built for fast-moving multi-asset markets.
- Local, high-touch support — with established teams across APAC.
Legacy Prime Brokerage Infrastructure vs Modern Prime Brokerage Platform
In an environment where opportunity moves quickly, the ability to deploy and scale systems rapidly is a competitive advantage. PB providers that reduce time to market without compromising control will be the ones best positioned to capitalise on APAC's growth.
See PrimeOne in Action
Unified prime brokerage infrastructure built for the speed and complexity of APAC markets — without the multi-year build.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are hedge funds increasing their presence in APAC?
The region offers diversification from US-driven volatility, strong IPO pipelines, and rapid growth across emerging markets. Firms like Millennium and Jane Street have returned to APAC to access earlier-stage opportunities unavailable in Western markets.
What challenges do mid-tier prime brokers face in APAC?
Mid-tier financial institutions face client expectations that resemble those placed on top-tier providers, but with fewer resources. That creates a squeeze: mid-tier firms may be reliant on systems built around narrower products or more siloed operations.
Large global institutions face the same complexity, but they have deeper budgets, broader technology resources, and more room to absorb inefficiencies while they modernize. More niche providers may compete via highly specialised offerings or tighter service models.
Why does speed to market matter so much for this segment?
If a prime broker cannot onboard efficiently, support complex financing activity, or provide visibility into exposure across workflows, clients will notice. In a market with more competition for mandates, those weaknesses become costly.
Speed to market matters because APAC banks and prime brokers do not have the luxury of multi-year transformation programs. They need to modernize now to remain relevant.
Why is unified prime brokerage infrastructure important?
Hedge funds in APAC routinely trade across multiple instruments and markets. A unified PB platform reduces operational risk, accelerates onboarding, and provides real-time risk visibility—critical for fast-moving regional markets.
How can platforms like PrimeOne help APAC prime brokers?
They offer cloud-native technology, multi-asset support, real-time risk tools and rapid deployment—addressing the infrastructure bottleneck and enabling PBs to scale quickly without multi-year buildouts.
