The sleeping giant awakens

Citigroup's Asian prime brokerage division is beefing up. The group says it is committed to devoting the necessary resources and capital to position itself as a lead player in the lucrative market of servicing hedge funds. Historically, Citi has not had much of a prime brokerage presence in the region. Operations have been limited to Japan, where the firm's Nikko-Citigroup joint venture has a Tokyo-based team, currently led by William Jensen. Citi's ambitions to become a signifi…