Institutional brokerage and boutique equity research firm Bay Crest Partners LLC plans to launch a fixed-income sales and trading team that will include municipal bonds.
The New York-based company plans to open its fixed-income trading desk within the next two months and wants to start trading municipals at that time, according to Sean Rice, who will head the group.
The fixed-income platform comes in addition to the equity trading team the firm already has in place.
“The idea is to really expand the product line, which is currently options and equities, into fixed income and to build out a full-service fixed-income platform, of which municipals would certainly be one of the products that we offer,” Rice said in an interview.
The firm said it wants to add 10 employees to the fixed-income group in the coming months. Rice said they are in the process of hiring.
Rice joined Bay Crest after serving as a managing director and head of product management for structured products at UBS. Before that, he was a managing director and head of product management and structured credit at Banc of America Securities LLC.
Rice has a bachelor’s degree from Seton Hall University.
“Entering the fixed-income markets represents an important addition to the top-notch equity and equity options trading services we currently provide,” said Bay Crest principal Eugene Croddick 2d. “We’re committed to building a first-class fixed-income brokerage platform, and are lucky to have a leader of Sean’s experience to head the team.”
