Morgan Stanley has expanded its municipal securities team with 11 new hires since the firm merged its institutional and wealth-management municipal desks in March.
Among the most recent hires, Victor Radina will join the firm as executive director of health care in mid-May from Citigroup Global Markets. He will be based in Morgan's Philadelphia office and will report to Joan Marron, executive director.
In mid-June, Ryan Vollmer will join Morgan Stanley as executive director of western infrastructure from RBC Capital Markets, where he is currently a director of investment banking. He will be based in Los Angeles and report to managing director John Sheldon in the San Francisco office.
The additions are part of Morgan's effort to provide more efficient trading services and expand access to retail clients as the New York-based investment bank looks to move up the ranks in municipal underwriting. For the past several years, Morgan Stanley has ranked fourth among the top 10 municipal underwriters with Bank of America Merrill Lynch in the lead.
With access to more than 16,456 financial advisors, the firm now boasts the biggest exclusive brokerage in the country.
"The connection of institution and retail will improve Morgan Stanley's distribution channel," said Matt Fabian, managing director of Municipal Market Advisors. "It's important to have as many distribution channels as possible. As supply is straining and sapping the market, the larger underwriters have an advantage."
Morgan Stanley purchased Citi's stake in a joint venture that gave the two firms shared access to Smith Barney's massive retail brokerage back in 2013. That enabled the firm's municipal underwriting team to leap ahead of its competitors.
Eight of the new hires were assigned to the public finance sector, while the remaining three were appointed to the sales and trading department.
Morgan Stanley also added Charlie Feinstein, Evan Levine and Frank Reed as executive directors to its public finance team. Levine will be promoted to the head of surface transportation and report to Ira Smelkinson, executive director, when David Rush retires at the end of June.
Previously, he worked at Citigroup. Reed primarily works with issuers in Texas and has opened a public finance office in San Antonio.
He reports to Bill Daley, executive director, based in Chicago. He formerly worked at Loop Capital Markets.
Feinstein covers western infrastructure for K-12 school district financing in both California and Washington. He also reports to Sheldon.
The firm has appointed Karma Pemba as associate of western infrastructure in April and Liberty Ziegahn as an associate of eastern infrastructure in March.
Pemba specializes in community college districts in the western region out of the Los Angeles office and also reports to Sheldon. Previously, Pemba worked at RBC Capital Markets.
Ziegahn joined the firm from William Blair & Co. and works with clients in the Midwest. She is under the supervision of Daley.
Rob Feigenson came on board as vice president of higher education from First Southwest in early January. Based in Morgan's Washington, D.C., office, Feigenson focuses on clients from across the country and reports to Eric Wild, managing director. Dan Stewart will be joining the investment grade municipal trading team as executive director from Goldman Sachs.
The firm added has also added Chris McCarthy as an executive director of derivatives trading and Brian Connery as vice president of credit analyst to its sales and trading team.
McCarthy was an internal hire who previously focused on corporate-backed credit default swaps. Connery covers Toll Roads and Prepay Gas municipal debt. Previously, he covered special situations and distressed munis at Citigroup.
Stewart will join McCarthy and Connery under the supervision David Hammer, managing director of trading and municipal desk research.
