LOS ANGELES -- Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ has hired Christopher Baron as a managing director in its Los Angeles office.
"It is not just California," said Kevin Dunphy, the bank's head of public finance, U.S. corporate banking. "We are continuing to pick up people we believe are the best bankers in the business to add to a strategic growth plan across the country."
The bank hired Jay Goldstone in October to work as a managing director. Goldstone, who completed a one-year term as MSRB chairman in September, also served more than six years as a commissioner on the California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission while working as San Diego's chief financial officer, and as the city's chief operations officer.
"What we are trying to do when we have the opportunity is to hire somebody like Chris, who has deep expertise and a track record in his field," Dunphy said.
Baron also worked for Dunphy several years ago when both were at Bank of New York.
Baron leaves a position as head of the Education and Nonprofits Division at U.S. Bank to work as a managing director on BTMU's public finance team.
At U.S. Bank, he led a team of 15 bankers who focused on serving larger education and nonprofit sector clients on a national level. Prior to that he was a managing director at The Bank of New York Mellon/BNY Capital Markets, Inc., where he was responsible for the public finance division's municipal business in the western United States. The division provided letters of credit and/or liquidity support for tax-exempt and taxable bonds issued by municipalities or on behalf of 501(c)(3) organizations.
At BTMU, he will be responsible for managing state and local government clients and prospects, including the origination and structuring of lines of credit, direct loans and placements, standby bond purchase agreements, and letters of credit. He will be based in Los Angeles and will report to Dunphy.
Dunphy said the bank's rapid growth in the sector has attracted a lot of interest in the market place.
"We went from nothing to being one of the leaders in a short period of time," he said.
The new hires fit in with a U.S. regional expansion for the bank that began in New York, moved to Texas and then California.
The bank aims to become one of the top 10 in the country and has identified public finance as a growth area to achieve that goal, Dunphy said.
With less than three years in public finance, the commercial bank's highest ranking on The Bond Buyer league tables is No. 2 for standby bond purchase agreements.
Unlike an investment bank, BTMU's focus is not on underwriting, but on providing direct lending and the league tables are not tracked as closely in that arena, Dunphy said. Revolving lines of credit, variable rate debt, direct lending on tax exempt loans and direct placements that resemble tax exempt loans are among the bank's offerings.
