Deutsche Bank Securities Thursday confirmed the hiring of muni derivatives specialist Ryan Donovan as a director within the municipal capital markets group.
Donovan is best known for his work at Bear Stearns, where he led the municipal derivatives marketing desk as a senior managing director. He joined Bear in 1995 and remained with the bank until its final days in June 2008 — with the exception of two years at UBS, where he was an executive director of municipal derivatives marketing from 2004 to 2006.
Donovan's role at Bear included the structuring and execution of derivative products for issuers and buy-side accounts. He also co-managed the bank's proprietary and third-party tender-option bond program.
When Bear Stearns became an early casualty of the credit crisis, Donovan and its head of public finance, Dan Keating, joined Samuel A. Ramirez & Co., a smaller New York-based firm that experienced rapid growth during the financial turmoil. Donovan launched Ramirez's municipal capital markets group during his three years at the minority-owned firm. The group assisted issuers with derivatives portfolio analysis and risk-reduction strategies, according to Ramirez.
Donovan, a finance alumnus from the University at Albany who holds Series 7, 53, and 63 FINRA licenses, was chairman of the new products committee at the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association from 2006 to 2008. He also was a member of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board's task force on municipal derivatives.
At Deutsche Bank, his focus is covering the health care and higher education sectors. The bank declined to offer additional comment.
Donovan reports to Patrick Marsh, a former colleague from Bear Stearns who has led Deutsche Bank's municipal structuring group since 2005.
Deutsche disclosed in November 2007 that Marsh is under investigation by the Justice Department as part of its probe into alleged anticompetitive bidding practices tied to muni derivatives and investment contracts. Marsh, who has denied any wrongdoing in the ongoing criminal matter, was listed as a co-conspirator in court filings accidentally released in March. The filings, which are tied to the government's suit against CDR Financial Products and three current and former CDR employees, were subsequently sealed by the court.
The alleged violation occurred before Marsh joined Deutsche Bank.
Before Marsh joined Bear Stearns in 2000, he was the co-head of municipal financial products at Greenwich Capital.
