Barclays Looking to Take on DB Prime Brokerage Business

With Deutsche Bank planning on dramatically shrinking its investment banking division after several years of losses, other financial institutions are looking to step in to snap up the German group's business.

On Thursday, reports surfaced that Barclays plans on taking some of Deutsche Bank's prime brokerage clients. The London-based bank is trying to expand its trading operations to better compete with US firms.

Also, according to Reuters, Barclays will be snapping up $20 billion worth of prime brokerage business from Deutsche Bank.

After it announced that it would be scrapping its Equities trading business earlier this month, Deutsche Bank inked a preliminary deal with BNP Paribas that would have seen the French firm providing prime brokerage services to affected clients.

Already a Barclays client

However, it seems that some of those clients would prefer to do business with Barclays.

"It is not unexpected and perfectly natural that some clients may wish to move balances to other providers as a temporary measure while our discussions with BNP Paribas are ongoing,” said a spokesperson for Deutsche Bank.

"Our discussions with BNP Paribas are progressing well and we are confident that balances will move back once the deal has been completed.”

Of the $20 billion worth of prime brokerage business that Barclays plans on taking control of, Reuters said that $10 billion comes from a client that the bank already works with. The media outlet claimed that the firm made the decision to move after hearing about Deutsche Bank's said that it was going to move out of the equities space.