Siebert Williams Shank celebrates 25 years in municipal bond industry

Siebert Williams Shank & Co. LLC, which turned 25 last October, is marking its silver anniversary this year due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic that made 2021 a tough year for a celebration.

The firm was founded in October 1996 as Siebert Brandford Shank by Muriel Siebert, the first woman who had a seat on the New York Stock Exchange, along with municipal bond professionals Napoleon Brandford III and Suzanne Shank.

It has grown to become a leading player in the municipal industry and a force in the corporate bond market.

"We have grown dramatically over the years, both organically and through mergers and acquisitions, such that we are the top ranked MWBE firm for municipals, corporate investment grades and equities,” Shank, the firm's president and CEO told The Bond Buyer. “The reputation built and sustained by an exceptionally talented team over these years is the truest testament of the excellence our team brings to the table.”

In 2016, after Siebert’s death and Brandford’s retirement, new partners joined the firm.

Henry Cisneros, the first Latino mayor of San Antonio, former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and former president and COO of Univision, joined ownership along with William Thompson, the former Comptroller of New York City; Sean Duffy, the company’s head of institutional sales and trading; and Gary Hall, national head of infrastructure and public finance. The company was renamed Siebert Cisneros Shank & Co. LLC.

In 2017, the firm expanded its offices at 100 Wall Street in New York, taking over almost the entire 18th floor. For the $1.1 million of new construction work, SCS used almost 100% minority-owned contractors for the job.

In 2019, the firm merged with The Williams Capital Group L.P., led by chair and CEO Christopher Williams, combining the two top-ranked MWBE financial firms to create Siebert Williams Shank, the top MWBE investment bank in municipal bonds in the United States and the 14th ranked managing underwriter in 2021, with 65 deals worth $8.1 billion.

The firm has 16 offices across the country and has underwritten trillions of dollars’ worth of municipal, corporate and agency bonds as well as equity offerings.

Shank said she felt the firm’s success was due in a large part to its ability to attract high-quality talent, both at the partner level and the team level.

In the municipal sector, the firm has been very active in the green bond and environmental, social and governance sector. It senior managed two of the three winners of The Bond Buyer's ESG/Green Deal of the Year projects — one on behalf of the Board of Education of Newark, New Jersey in 2021 and one for the Los Angeles County Metro Transit Authority, California in 2019.

Additionally, the firm led the biggest municipal deal ever senior managed by an MWBE firm — a $1.75 billion transaction for the state of California.

“Over the last 25 years, Siebert Williams Shank has steadily grown in capacity, reputation, and respect within our nation’s communities and within the financial sector. SWS today brings exactly the right expertise and profile to bridge the capital needs of America’s public institutions and the requirements of knowledgeable investors,” Cisneros said in a statement.

On the corporate bond side, the firm’s clients include 74 Fortune 100 companies. In 2021, the company participated in more than 50% of all corporate environmental, social and governance issuance.

The firm has also been active in helping underserved communities around the nation.

In 2020, the company formed the Clear Vision Impact Fund LLC, with an initial $25 million investment from Microsoft Corp. The funds aims to maximize its social impact by helping small- and medium-sized minority- and women-owned business enterprises access capital. To date it has raised $140 million.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Clear Vision received capital commitments of $110 million to provide capital to hard-hit MWBE firms around the country.

“As business leaders, we not only achieve success for our clients, but ensure that the doors we have opened remain so for others to follow. By making loans to small- to mid-sized businesses in support of their hiring and training of minorities and other members of underserved communities nationally, the Clear Vision Impact Fund helps them reach their full potential and fuel the next generation of successful MWBEs,” Williams said.

Last year, the Siebert Williams Shank Foundation, the company's the philanthropic arm, helped to support two of America’s historically Black colleges and universities. The Foundation gave $200,000 to Howard University in Washington, D.C., and the Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, to help support the next generation of Black business leaders.

“It’s in our DNA to give back and be focused on helping underserved communities,” Shank said. “We are very proud of our ownership structure and diversity of workforce and so we felt it was only appropriate that we continue to give back.”

She said the Foundation is focused on advancing economic equity and fostering equality.

“We care very much about reducing poverty levels, both nationally and globally,” she said. “And providing educational opportunities, which were critical to my success personally and changed the trajectory of my career.”

The firm hires interns who don’t always come from Ivy League schools and may not have had exposure to Wall Street, she said.

“Reinvesting what we do in the capital markets to serve and help our communities is really critical to being a good corporate citizen,” Shank said.

Looking ahead, Shank said the firm seeks strategic growth.

“I think the firm is looking forward to expansion and at the higher education and healthcare spaces, given what we’ve been seeing in those sectors and we’ve not been a bigger player as we would like to be,” she said.

“It will also be interesting what happens because we’ve had a bit of a lovefest in terms of very low interest rates and good volume in the last couple of years,” she said.

Shank noted the firm took on a leadership role during the turbulent financial crisis of 2008-2009 and avoided the big layoffs that other companies were forced to make.

"I’m hoping that since we’ve lived through those cycles … our firm will be one that continues to not only weather these tougher markets as rates rise and volatility increases, but that we grow our market share,” Shank said.

“We’re ready. We are veterans of the business and are devoted to serving our clients, whether it’s in good markets or in bad markets,” she said.