Another banking analyst has left Wall Street to hang out an entrepreneurial shingle.
Sean J. Ryan left Bear, Stearns & Co. to start Byrne, Ryan & Co., a research company that will deliver independent banking analysis. It will be based in White Plains, N.Y.
Mr. Ryan, 30, will co-head the company with Daniel Byrne, 55, a veteran trader who has worked at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc., when it was started by Harry Keefe.
Mr. Ryan, who resigned from Bear Stearns on Monday, said he expects to begin issuing research reports in the next several weeks.
Mr. Ryan's decision to step out on his own came just a week after Tom Brown, a bank analyst at the hedge fund Tiger Management, said he was starting his own money management firm, which will also offer independent research.
"Our goal is to write unbiased investment research for institutional investors," said Mr. Ryan. "We will not be running money, there will not be any investment banking. We will be serving only one master, and that is pure research."
The idea of starting such a company came to Mr. Ryan last summer after, he said, Bear Stearns muzzled him with the press because of his bearish commentary about First Union Corp. of Charlotte, N.C. First Union, which has clashed with Thomas K. Brown on several occasions when the analyst became negative on the company, suspended its bond-trading business at Bear Stearns, which generates annual revenue estimated at $10 million, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Mr. Ryan said there is no mainstream, high-profile company that puts out independent research specifically for banking. But he points out that such research is likely to be more in demand than ever before.
Institutional investors have become more frustrated with the quality of analysis from sell-side analysts because their opinions are often affected by investment banking and other parts of the business, said Mr. Ryan. "If the system was ever to collapse, the majority of research product would not stand on its own."
Mr. Ryan added that the last five years have been extremely favorable for banks, which has made it much easier for the cheerleading bank analysts to get by. However, "the next five years will probably be bumpier for bank stocks, so the independent research will be more valuable."
