Prime broker profile: Jefferies

Jefferies, the largest US investment bank, emerged from the financial crisis in a strong position to grow its prime brokerage business using leading edge technology and focus on mid-tier hedge funds.

Jefferies was one of the few banks to emerge from the financial crisis with credit. The bank kept a clean balance sheet and operated with conservative leverage in the run-up to the crisis, allowing it to prosper as larger rivals ran into problems.

The financial crisis set off a series of events from the failure of Lehman Brothers, to the sale of Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch, and the moves by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to restructure themselves as bank holding companies, which left