CHICAGO - RBC Capital Markets has hired Stratford Shields -- a longtime Morgan Stanley banker and a former head of its public finance business -- to lead its Midwestern municipal banking efforts.
Shields recently resigned from Morgan Stanley to take the position but he has not officially started at RBC, according to multiple municipal market sources.
RBC Capital Markets spokeswoman Sanam Heidary declined to comment, neither confirming nor denying Shields' hiring.
Sources said Shields would join the firm in its Chicago office in a leadership role, although his exact title was not clear.
At least two bankers work out of Chicago, generalist banker Kevin Hoecker, a director, and healthcare veteran Jerry Berg, a managing director.
The firm also has a Midwestern municipal banking presence in Minnesota and Ohio. It was not yet clear how many bankers in the office or region would report to Shields.
RBC ranked 10th among senior managers in the Midwest last year leading $1.8 billion of issuance, according to Thomson Reuters. The firm ranked 6th among senior managers on negotiated sales valued at $16.4 billion nationally.
Morgan Stanley ranked 8th in the Midwest last year among senior managers credited with nearly $2.5 billion of borrowing. Nationally, Morgan Stanley ranked fourth among senior managers on negotiated sales valued at $17.6 billion.
Morgan Stanley in 2007 tapped Shields, who was then head of its Midwest regional group and also had overseen it Southeast, Southwest and Rocky Mountain regional groups, to serve as head of its public finance business.
The move came about four months after former head Andrew Garvey left the firm. Shields said at the time his mandate was to continue building on the firm's sector strengths and expand its housing business.
Shields stepped down as head of public finance in September 2012 and the firm named Charlie Visconsi and Brian Wynne as co-heads of the department. He returned to Chicago full-time, working as a senior banker.
Shields joined Morgan Stanley in 1996 after serving as a vice president at Prudential Securities. He previously was president of Ohio's State Controlling Board and deputy director of its Office of Budget and Management.
RBC operates one of the larger muni finance groups in the country, with bankers in at least 28 cities across the U.S., as well as a 75 person housing tax credit syndication group, according to past reports from the firm.
The firm has risen in the rankings over the years, benefitting from its strong regional presence across the country with top middle markets numbers and in more recent years from its push to run the books on bigger deals from larger municipal issuers. The firm has also capitalized on its ability to provide credit through its commercial banking side - the Royal Bank of Canada.
The firm's roots in municipal finance go back some 75 years, but the RBC name has only been familiar with muni players since 2001, when RBC acquired Minneapolis-based brokerage Dain Rauscher and began underwriting munis as RBC Dain Rauscher.
Over the next decade, the firm ramped up its banking hires and also acquired a series of regional, boutique firms like Tucker Anthony Sutro, William R. Hough & Co., and Seasongood & Mayer.
