The Bank of New York Mellon has named Troy Kilpatrick president of Bank of New York Mellon Trust Co., the municipal market's largest trustee, the company announced last week.
Kilpatrick takes over from Michael Klugman, who retired. In addition to serving as president, Kilpatrick will retain his title and duties as head of the corporate and municipal finance group.
Kilpatrick joined the firm in 1999 and has more than 20 years of experience in the corporate trust industry.
"Troy has been instrumental in guiding our efforts to secure and maintain industry-leading positions in the corporate and municipal business segments," Scott Poster, chief executive officer of the company's global corporate trust business, said in a statement. "He is a well-known and highly respected leader in the industry, making him the ideal choice for this strategically important position."
Bank of New York Mellon was by far the largest trustee in the market last year, working on 1,170 deals with a par value of $98.4 billion and controlling a market share of 39.2%, according to Thomson Reuters. It has served as the trustee on 71 issues with a par value of $7.85 billion for a market share of nearly 42% so far this year.
The company has 30 offices across the country that work on municipal corporate trusts and a staff of about 570 that works on the front end providing client services in the municipal business.
"I think the message is, due to our financial strength, our size, commitment to the business, and knowledge base, we're going to have a good year regardless of what the market throws at us, as long as we remain flexible," Kilpatrick said.
He said both transparency and compliance will be keys for issuers as the market moves forward. His company is in talks with several potential partners to help develop solutions on those issues for the industry.
He noted that Bank of New York Mellon played a critical role amid the market turmoil last year. With the downgrades to bond insurers, failed auctions, and the conversion of many issues to variable-rate demand obligations, trustees demonstrated their importance in the market, Kilpatrick said.
Bank of New York "provided some thought leadership" on these issues when they occurred last year, he said. As the market's biggest trustee, Bank of New York expects to provide leadership in the market when these types of issues arise in the future.
"People, hopefully, had a little bit of new-found respect understanding the trustee and the trustee's role," Kilpatrick said.
