High-profile industry veteran Thomas Gallo joined the recently created municipal underwriting and sales team at U.S. Bancorp Investments, it was confirmed Monday.
A short-term bond specialist, Gallo has been involved in the muni market for more than four decades. He is best known for his work at JPMorgan, where he worked for close to 30 years ending in 2007, including 15 years running the bank’s short-term group.
U.S. Bancorp — parent of U.S. Bank, the fifth-largest commercial bank in the country — announced its entry into the municipal underwriting business in mid-May when it persuaded another longtime industry pro, Richard Kolman, to head a new muni securities group.
Gallo joined the New York-based group two weeks ago to lead efforts in building out a floating-rate book and “widen the menu” of services that will be available when the bank makes its full entry into the market next year, Kolman said.
“One of the initial focuses of U.S. Bank is that we’re going to be full service — both short term and long term,” he added. “We have a major build-out in front of us, and he’s definitely a major cog.”
Kolman, the former co-head of municipal finance at Goldman, Sachs & Co., said Gallo’s experience in building out a trading desk at JPMorgan matches well with the direction that U.S. Bancorp plans to take.
“After doing this for 15 years as head of the desk, he’ll be a tremendous resource in terms of building out a very active desk that will include floating-rate products, short-term notes, index floaters, etc.,” Kolman said.
He called particular attention to the range of relationships Gallo has with investors and issuers across all sectors of the market.
Gallo departed JPMorgan in October 2007 to become a managing director at Depfa First Albany, which was created when Depfa Bank PLC acquired the municipal capital markets group of First Albany Capital Inc.
After DFA was acquired by Jefferies Group in early 2009, Gallo moved on to First Southwest, where he was a senior vice president from April 2009 until his new appointment.
U.S. Bancorp’s muni group is part of U.S. Bank’s capital markets group, led by executive vice president Jeff Stuart.
The muni group also includes Alex Wallace, who leads public finance and origination from Charlotte, N.C. Previously, Wallace was a managing director and head of public finance at Wachovia Securities.
U.S. Bancorp. has been involved with public finance for more than 75 years, but as an agent and trustee rather than as an underwriter. Last year it was the second-ranked trustee in the country, managing 1,028 issues with a value of $58.5 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.
