Securities

 

Fixed Income, Currency and Commodities is at the forefront of worldwide markets in interest rate and credit products, foreign exchange and commodities. We assist our clients with their investing and trading strategies and also engage in principal investing and proprietary trading using the firm’s capital.

The division provides multi-faceted services to a diverse roster of global clients, including:

• Making markets across all major products lines to provide liquidity to clients
• Developing innovative techniques and products to assist investors in developing optimal portfolio allocations
• Providing and interpreting market and product information that enables investors to implement strategies using a broad and growing range of financial and commodity products
• Creating strategies for hedging commodities, currency and rate exposure

Functionally, FICC performs five primary roles across various lines of business:

Sales professionals play a key role in building and maintaining relationships with our clients. These team members help design strategies to take advantage of market changes, including highly sophisticated portfolio restructuring and hedging transactions.

Trading makes markets in specialized product areas. Traders watch for economic and political events, shifts in currency and interest rates and key credit events. Traders also work with the firm’s Capital Markets group on the pricing, structuring and timing of new issues.

Investing professionals analyze the credit outlook and debt structure of industry groups and individual companies and make longer-term investments using the firm’s own capital. Typically these investments are made in distressed debt instruments with significant upside potential.

Strategists work side by side with the firm’s trading, sales and banking professionals. They use their mathematical and scientific training to create financial products, advise clients on transactions, measure risk and identify market opportunities.

Structurers advise clients on and structure more complex derivative trades that are tailored to clients’ specific asset and liability management needs.

FICC is organized into the following specialized areas, offering regional expertise across the Americas, Europe, Asia and Emerging Markets:

Macro Products trade on macroeconomic themes such as economic policies, interest rate movements, employment data, inflation and geopolitical situations.

• Commodities provides full service commodity risk management to commercial, sovereign and investor customers worldwide. We have extensive physical and financial experience in power, natural gas, natural gas liquids, liquefied natural gas, crude oil and refined products, as well as coal, emissions, metals and agricultural products
• Currencies trades in spot and forward currencies, futures, swaps and in vanilla and exotic currency options
• Interest Rate Products trades government and agency securities, swaps, futures, and options
• Money Markets assists corporations and governments in raising short-term funds by issuing commercial paper and other money market instruments, and makes markets in these securities

Mortgages originates and trades residential and commercial mortgages, mortgage-backed securities and other collateralized debt.

Credit encompasses the following groups:

• Investment Grade - makes markets in corporate bonds, preferred securities and credit default swaps of investment grade issuers
• High Yield - makes markets in sub-investment grade corporate bonds and credit default swaps
• Structured Credit - makes markets in structured products including portfolio trades, indices and CLOs; creates tailored products that address complex client needs
• Bank Loans - makes markets in loans that are primarily senior secured, often arise from LBO / restructuring activity and are generally rated below investment grade
• Municipals - makes markets and provides structured solutions for clients in tax-exempt securities
• Distressed Investing - takes positions across the capital structure of companies in or near financial distress

Global Special Situations Group is the primary principal investing group for FICC. It is comprised of the following regional teams:

Americas Special Situations Group:

• Multi-Strategy Investing teams seek to opportunistically invest in attractive risk-adjusted assets in all parts of a company's capital structure, including bank debt, bonds, distressed debt and public equity
• Special Opportunities Group encompasses a number of capital investing strategies including investing in asset intensive industries, middle market direct lending and investing in portfolios of assets

Asian Special Situations Group:

• Japan: The team originated in 1998 to invest in non-performing unsecured loans. Since then, its investment targets have expanded to secured non-performing loans, sub-performing loans, illiquid high-yield bonds and private/public equity
• Non-Japan Asia: The team invests throughout China, India, Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Australia

European Special Situations Group:

• Corporate Credit invests in attractive risk-adjusted assets across corporate capital structures, including new issue senior bank debt, mezzanine loans, high yield bonds, special purpose vehicles and through direct loans / investments
• Portfolio Business is primarily focused on investing in a wide variety of illiquid financial assets including residential and commercial mortgage loans, commercial and industrial loans, franchise loans, vehicle / equipment leases, consumer loans and small business loans
• Real Estate Financing invests in real estate lending opportunities throughout Europe across multiple asset classes, including office, industrial, multi-family and hotel