The municipal group at Citi is not only one of the top ranked muni underwriting and trading firms, it's also the longest tenured one on the Street.
Ward Marsh, the head of Citi's municipal securities division, who's been with the firm for 43 years, credits the unit's successes to the stability of the muni team. David Brownstein, head of public finance, has been with Citi for 22 years; the co-head of municipal markets, Peter Bartlett, has been there for 39 years; and "the new guy," muni markets co-head Joe Geraci, has been there 19 years.
Frank Chin, who was with the firm for 37 years, was co-head of public finance with Brownstein before retiring in July 2015.
"A central theme within the group is people, people who aspire to excellence in a culture of loyalty and mutual respect that has kept the business strong," Marsh said in an interview this month.
Citi has consistently been in the top three in annual league tables for municipal managing underwriters, ranking as high as No. 1 in 2009 with a par amount of $58.365 billion. In 2015 the firm finished second with $43.489 billion, the most in five years, according to data from Thomson Reuters. With $32.075 billion of par so far this year, Citi's on a pace to top that total.
Citi has run the books on some enormous transactions so far in 2016, including: the New York Transportation Development Corp.'s $2.4 billion deal for LaGuardia Airport Terminal B in May; the Los Angeles Unified School District's $1.2 billion of general obligations in March; the state of California's $2.7 billion of GO's in March; Pennsylvania's $990.5 million of GO's in June; and the New York Transportation Corp.'s $844 million for American Airlines at John F. Kennedy International Airport in June.
"We have a proven track record, and pride ourselves on longstanding client relationships," Bartlett said.
The group has also weathered the bad times, getting through the difficult period after the financial crisis by engaging with clients regularly, banding together and making smart decisions, the executives said. As an example, in June of 2013, they opened trading on a Sunday to maintain stability in the markets. That year the firm managed deals worth $36.61 billion in par amount.
The group's longevity and stability have helped create a productive culture, that allows "fostering of ideas, innovation and personal responsibility," Geraci said. "We have great minds working together."
The culture encourages competition of ideas, as team members challenge one another, bouncing ideas and from one person to the next, allowing them to evolve and fully form.
"The work dynamic that we have created within the organization has attracted many of the best and the brightest on The Street," said Geraci.
The firm has also prided itself in helping clients through tough situations, as it did for Detroit water and sewer and Jefferson County, Ala.
"Our business model is constantly evolving to meet our clients' unique challenges," said Bartlett, who is based in Los Angeles. "Distressed credits, in particular, are one area of focus."
Citi Community Capital is part of the municipal securities division and is the primary avenue that Citi uses to satisfy the community lending and investment activities that banks are responsible for under the Community Reinvestment Act, which was passed by Congress in 1977.
Among its other activities, the group has been the No. 1 affordable housing lender nationally, according to Affordable Housing Finance Magazine, for 9 out of the last 10 years, providing over $4.8 billion of lending in 2015 alone.
John Heppolette, co-head of CCC, has been with Citi since 1998 and has had the CCC role for 2-1/2 years now, said that the structure of the business is key.
"Our business structure is unique and is specifically designed to function as a fully integrated unit," Heppolette said. "We are able to create and distribute a broad array of products across a variety of finance disciplines."
