Two Black-Owned Investment Banks Merge to Become the Largest Minority- and Women-Owned Banks

In October 2019, two renowned black-owned investment banks merged their firms to become a large financial firm that will lead the minority- and women-owned investment banking sector to match other majority competitors on Wall Street.

Siebert Cisneros Shank & Co. L.L.C. is one of the leading underwriters of municipal bonds in the nation. The firm ranks No. 2 in tax-exempt securities with $5.4 billion in lead issues. The firm also ranks No. 4 in taxable securities with a $1.1 billion lead issues, according to the BE Investment Banks list. The Williams Capital Group L.P.  is a leading dealer in corporate debt, ranking No.2 in taxable securities with $1.1 billion in lead issues and No.4 in tax-exempt securities.

Both firms announced on October 3, 2019, that they will merge to “leverage each firm’s experience and strong industry position in corporate and municipal underwriting, and debt and equity sales & trading.”

The new firm will be named Siebert Williams Shank & Co. L.L.C. which will combine both firm’s “complementary strengths” in order to “serve a broad spectrum of clients across industries and asset classes.”

Christopher Williams will serve as the board chairman of the new firm. While Suzanne Shank will assume the position of the president and chief executive officer. Also, the former HUD secretary under President Bill Clinton, Henry Cisneros will remain a principal of the merged firm, serving as the vice-chairman.

“By bringing together two first-class firms, we will accelerate our collective success and greatly enhance our ability to serve our clients using a strong capital base that is now significantly larger,” Shank said. “We are creating the No.1 ranked MWBE investment banking firm in the country that will continue to compete with the best firms on Wall Street.”

Shank is the only African-American woman on Wall Street who runs a financial firm. In an interview with Crain’s in 2016 she said hoped she wouldn’t be the last as well.

Shank launched her firm, Siebert Cisneros Shank in 1996 after a dinner with Muriel Siebert who was also the first female member of the New York Stock Exchange. Before co-founding the firm with Siebert in 1996, Shank had spent 10 years working at a financial advisory firm, James I. Lowrey & Co.

According to the agreements and the leadership of both firms, the merger was planned to be completed by January 1, 2020. The merged firm will have its headquarters in New York and Oakland with over 15 offices across the country.

“This is a victory for the American way of enterprise,” Cisneros said. “The pairing of two firms that have achieved the top tier of their fields to create one firm that is not only the nation’s leading financial services WBE but also now occupies the rarefied air of one of the industry’s most successful multi-asset, non-bank financial players. I could not be more proud of my partners.”