Despite the rapid rise of the quants - which now represent up to 50% of global market liquidity - the majority of large multi-asset investment firms still focus their services primarily toward large, fundamental long-only strategies.

In a bid to fill the gap, UBS Quant HQ has been set up as a joint venture between the bank's prime services and direct execution businesses, offering an á la carte service from the two.

The direct access business will provide DMA, its suite of algo strategies, personalised execution consultancy via the firm's recently-launched Quant on Demand offering, an analytics platform offering Real-Time TCA, and a multi-asset international execution management system.

Meanwhile, the prime services unit offers expert advice, capital introduction, execution and access to the world's capital markets.

Charlie Susi, global co-head, direct execution, UBS, says: "They [quants] know precisely what they want from their service providers and have highly specialised needs. With Quant HQ, we've organised ourselves to empower them to implement their innovative models and help them quickly seize opportunities for alpha, wherever they trade."

Scott Stickler, who is leading Quant HQ, told Bloomberg that the Volcker rule has seen an increase in people leaving big banks to set up their own hedge funds. These new players want help with technology, trading and financing - with 12 already turning to UBS.