Deutsche Bank to Open New Office in Summit, N.J.

Public finance trustee work is a business of scale, dominated by a handful of firms that routinely buy up their smaller competitors. Deutsche Bank is one of the few firms still trying to grow its trustee practice without simply acquiring other trustees and their portfolios of business. Last week, Deutsche announced it is opening another regional office — this time in Summit, N.J., — where the company will handle its relationships with public finance officials in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware.Gradually, some of the accounts managed from Deutsche’s New York office will be handled from Summit, said Steve Eason, director and head of Deutsche’s public finance trust services in the United States. He added that his company is also looking in other prime public finance markets, such as Texas and Florida, to find staff for more new offices.“Acquiring portfolios when they become available is always something we consider,” Eason said. “But its not part of our core strategy.”A glance at the trustee bank league tables from the first quarter of 2007 shows the difference between the top three firms and everyone else in the U.S. public finance trustee business. Bank of New York was the top trustee in 2007 through the end of March, having won a trustee role on $30.7 billion of municipal bond sales, according to Thomson Financial. U.S. Bank was second with $11.9 billion of new muni business, and Wells Fargo was third with $6 billion.Deutsche was the fourth-busiest during the quarter, being named trustee on $1.8 billion of new state and local government debt, according to Thomson.The new Summit office is the company’s newest regional office opened during an initiative it began five years ago. Other regional offices include Boston, Charlotte, N.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Olive Branch, Miss.Corporate trust veteran Debra Schwalb will join Deutsche as a vice president in charge of the new Summit office, the company said in a statement last week. She comes to Deutsche from Bank of New York, where she was responsible for relationship managers and trust associates in the firm’s mid-Atlantic trustee business. Deutsche also said it has hired Joe Dattoli, former associate publisher of The Bond Buyer, as a vice president in its New York office responsible for business development.