WASHINGTON - M&T Bank yesterday announced that it has hired 15 municipal bond specialists from the former broker-dealer and investment banking firm Ferris, Baker Watts Inc., which it says gives it the largest municipal bond business headquartered in Baltimore.
Ferris Baker was acquired by the Royal Bank of Canada in June. Of the 15 hired, 14 will be based in Baltimore, with the final one working out of North Carolina.
The addition of the muni bond team allows the bank to add fixed-rate bond underwriting services to its variable-rate bond underwriting, credit enhancement, financial advising, interest rate hedging, and corporate trust services, M&T officials said.
The new employees come from FBW's underwriting group, as well as institutional sales, institutional traders, research and compliance, and banking areas. They will work for M&T Securities and the M&T Investment Banking Group and allow M&T to serve a broader base of clients qualifying for tax-exempt financing.
"The expertise and experience that this fine group of professionals brings to M&T further enhances our position as a leading full-service provider of banking services to municipalities and not-for-profit institutions in the markets we serve," Scott Dagenais, senior vice president of government, health care, and not-for-profit banking at M&T, said in a press release.
M&T previously had a variable-rate demand bond practice, but did not deal with fixed-rate bonds.
"The challenge was, if our clients, issuers, or borrowers had a desire for fixed-rate solutions, we were really not playing in that part of the playing field," Jerome Collier, managing director of M&T Investment Banking Group, said in a brief interview.
He emphasized that the expansion follows the openings of new offices in New Jersey, the metropolitan New York area, and Canada.
"This is one element of the growth story of M&T Bank, despite all the macro challenges" in the current economy, Collier said.
At least nine other former FBW bankers have been lured to new firms since June.
M&T hired: two underwriting specialists, Carol Converso and Bill Mantler; four trading professionals, Scott Krug, Chuck Yearly, Adam Boffen, and Jeff Krug; six institutional sales representatives, Charles Ryan, Brian Lees, Joseph Roberts, Ivo Jamrosz, Richard Reid, and Jerel Brager; Greg Brunner in investment banking; Deborah Hontz in research; and Donna White in compliance.
