RBC Recruits More Muni Bankers
RBC follows in the footsteps of Merrill Lynch and other firms which hired bankers from now-defunct UBS business.
July 9, 2008
RBC Capital Markets, having recently hired a team of municipal finance bankers from Bear Stearns, has now brought on five muni bankers from UBS.
The five professionals--Michael Baumrin, Peter Nolden, Mina Choo, Derek McGreal and Lorry Palacios--will join RBC's municipal finance housing capital group. Baumrin will take over as co-head of housing finance with Helen Feinberg, who came to RBC via its 2004 acquisition of William R. Hough & Co.
Baumrin and Feinberg will report to Bob Spangler, head of the Western region and housing capital group for RBC's municipal finance division.
The new hires were all bankers at UBS, which recently shuttered its municipal bond business. Their addition brings the size of RBC's municipal housing finance group to 24 professionals.
Baumrin and Nolden were named managing directors at RBC, while Choo and McGreal join as directors and Palacios joins as a vice president. Baumrin will work in New York, while the other members of his team are based in San Francisco.
"This was a terrific opportunity to recruit a talented team of seasoned professionals who we are confident will significantly expand our work with state housing finance agencies nationwide," said Chris Hamel, RBC's head of municipal finance. "This is an important sector for RBC as we continue to grow our municipal finance practice in select, targeted areas that best suit our clients' needs.
At UBS, Baumrin was head of the housing group and joined the Swiss bank nine years ago after 18 years at Merrill Lynch. Nolden started at UBS in 1980, while Choo has spent 14 years in UBS' housing division.
In their new roles, Baumrin will supervise RBC's relations with state and local housing finance agencies regarding single-family operations, while Nolden will be a senior single-family and multi-family banker for the Western region.
RBC is following in the footsteps of Merrill and other banks which have picked up professionals from UBS' now-defunct muni business. Merrill hired about 30 bankers from the group.
Last month, RBC announced it hired a team of seven municipal finance healthcare bankers from Bear. Meanwhile, RBC also announced it hired Bear veteran Jim Wolfe as a managing director and head of US leveraged finance.
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