First Empire Expands CD and Structured Note Underwriting Capabilities

HAUPPAUGE, NY--(Marketwired - July 19, 2016) - First Empire Securities, a national fixed income broker-dealer for institutional investors, announced the expansion of its CD and Structured Note underwriting business with the arrival of Ardi Baniahmad, Josh Brenner, Rick Cabanes and Meghan Greenwood, formerly of Hapoalim Securities USA/Bank Hapoalim. They will be based in the firm's newly opened Los Angeles and Jersey City, NJ offices.

"Meghan, Ardi, Josh and Rick bring meaningful financial institutional relationships, extensive structured transaction experience, and a diversified sales approach to our current underwriting businesses," said Stephanie Rella, Chief Operating Officer at First Empire. "They are uniquely positioned to help issuers optimize their funding needs, as well as deliver compelling payoffs for clients looking for yield in this new era of depressed rates. We're delighted that they joined the firm."

In growing the underwriting capabilities at First Empire Securities, the group will build out a syndicate and secondary trading platform, focusing on underwriting structured payoffs in certificate of deposit and corporate note form. They will also expand the company's digital product delivery platform.

"The new team has executed billions of dollars in structured transactions over the last 10 years, including deals referenced to every asset class and in virtually every payoff delivered to all types of clients here in the U.S as well as off shore," said Joseph Oricoli, Managing Director at First Empire Securities. "We are confident that they will add tremendous value to our depository client base, creating novel and cost-effective funding solutions, as well as providing innovative products to our buy- side client base supporting issuances with deep and meaningful secondary markets."

At Hapoalim, the team created the Structured Product Trading Group servicing domestic and international issuers and creating products for private banks, broker-dealers, investment advisors and other institutions. Previously, the team was involved in similar lines of business at Countrywide Financial/Bank of America.

"With a dedicated balance sheet to take down large transactions, our underwriting service will be a powerful offering for institutions to increase net interest margin and to diversify access to liquidity," said Rick Cabanes. "With one of the largest credit union coverage teams in the industry, First Empire will enhance our ability to unlock new pools of liquidity for depository institutions."

First Empire Securities

First Empire Securities is an institutional fixed income broker-dealer providing a broad range of services to ensure clients are making well-informed investment decisions. The company's seasoned traders and financial strategists, state-of-the-art analytical tools and former regulatory examiners all contribute to a full-service approach developed to help institutions improve the performance of their investment portfolios and to better manage their balance sheets. First Empire Securities is a member of FINRA/SIPC.

First Empire Holding Corp.

First Empire Holding Corp. (First Empire) is an employee-owned company and is the parent company of First Empire Securities, Balance Sheet Management Services, LPC Services, First Empire CD Management and First Empire Asset Management. Today, the company works with more than 2,000 institutions across the United States providing a range of services related to fixed income investing, loan participations, asset liability management, regulatory consulting and funding strategies. More information can be found at www.firstempire.com.