Bank of New York hopes a Citibank executive it has hired to head its personal fixed-income management division will help increase the bank's presence in the high-net-worth bond market.
Kevin Connolly, 44, was named senior vice president of the bank's asset management sector on July 5. He succeeds Chris Capone, 58, who left the bank in June to pursue other interests.
Mr. Connolly has worked in the asset management divisions of Citi, Chase Manhattan, and Goldman, Sachs & Co. He said his new job at Bank of New York will allow him to draw on all of his experiences and take advantage of a bond market that, despite recent sluggishness, is ready to expand.
"The high-net-worth bond business has quietly performed very well over the last couple years," Mr. Connolly said. "Even though the market overall has been sluggish to down, the wealth creation in the equity market has created new high-net-worth investors who are using bonds as a rainy day fund, of sorts."
Bank of New York does not have any lofty expectations about a return of the bond market but rather seeks to take advantage of high-net-worth clients who want to give themselves an umbrella, Mr. Connolly said.
"People that come into money - however they come into money - want to immunize their style of living. By putting money aside in a bond account, it allows them to do this and reduces the overall volatility in their portfolio," he said.
Mr. Connolly has been an asset manager for 19 years. Most recently, he directed Citibank Global Asset Management's municipal/tax efficient fixed income group. Before that he was a portfolio manager with taxable and nontaxable fixed-income groups with Chase Manhattan and Goldman Sachs.
At Goldman, Mr. Connolly was a buy-side bond trader. He said that position helped him to gain valuable experience managing fixed-income funds and to build a reputation for providing strong performance numbers. Later he learned that people look for more than numbers.
"At Chase I got some great experience working on the private client side," he said. "It really interested me to have that close client contact, and it gave me a better appreciation of what clients needed and what they wanted."
Bank of New York, which has $63 billion of assets under management - $6 billion of it in bonds - is in a great position, Mr. Connolly said. "This is an extremely lively market that everyone and their brother is getting into. We are a step ahead in terms of client experience, and our people skills and performance record will help us to continue to bring new money in."
