Battle lines drawn as hedge funds eye bank businesses

Hedge funds want to muscle their way into businesses that were once the preserve of banks – but the incumbents are intent on defending their turf

Hedge funds first rode into town as the rebellious upstarts of the financial markets. They wore leather jackets, rode big motorcycles and caused all sorts of trouble with their antics.

But things changed once institutional investors got hold of them. The freewheeling mavericks of yesteryear were replaced by a new breed of hedge fund – one more concerned with hedging tail risks and minimising volatility and correlations than delivering eye-watering returns. Hedge funds became ‘institutionalised’