Joseph Fichera

Last updated
Joseph Fichera
Profile Picture of Joseph Fichera.png
Born
Joseph Sebastian Fichera

Rochester, New York
Education B.A.
M.B.A.
Alma mater Princeton University
Yale School of Management
Known forFounder, Saber Partners, LLC
Website Joseph Fichera bio

Joseph Sebastian Fichera is an American business executive known primarily for his work in the fields of investment banking and financial services. He is the CEO of Saber Partners, LLC, a public advisory firm that he co-founded in 2000. [1] Prior to Saber, he worked for various Wall Street firms including Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Company, Prudential Securities and Bear Stearns & Co., as a managing director, principal. [2]

Contents

Fichera is the creator of share-adjusted broker-remarketed equity securities, also known as SABRES, as an alternative to auction rate securities. [3] He is also considered an expert at auction rate securities, serving as an expert advisor for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. [4] Fichera was also one of California Governor Gray Davis' advisors, assisting with the California electricity crisis that took place in 2000 and 2001. [5]

Early life and education

Fichera was born in Rochester, New York in 1954, his father a bookkeeper and his mother a hairdresser. [6] His grandfather was a barber who emigrated from Sicily in 1910. [7] Fichera grew up in Rochester and as a teenager was outspoken about racial desegregation of Rochester schools in the 1960s, becoming a student representative on the Board of Education for Rochester New York. [6] Fichera earned a full tuition scholarship to Princeton University, where he graduated with an A.B. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 1976 after completing a senior thesis titled "Politics, Personality and Budgeting in the States: The Case of New Jersey." [8] [6]

Upon graduation, Fichera worked as a political appointee for the Department of Housing and Urban Development during the administration of Jimmy Carter. [6] He left HUD three years later to attend the Yale School of Management, obtaining an M.B.A. from the school in 1982. [6]

Career

Fichera began his financial career with Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, then known as Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Company. [6] It was during his time with Smith Barney that he gained experience in the auction-rate market and challenges to it, landing ExxonMobil as a client in 1987. [3] He advised Exxon on how to reduce interest costs by adjusting rates and repricing periods on its tax-exempt debt and selling them when conditions were more favorable. [6] Fichera also advised them not to sell auction rate securities, instead leading them to share-adjusted broker-remarketed equity securities (known as SABRES), an alternative to auction rate securities created by Fichera in 1988. [9] Exxon made a $750 million deal with Smith Barney, the largest single program of variable preferred stock up until that time. [3] He held the position of Vice President of Corporate Finance before moving on to Bear Stearns & Co in 1989 [10] as one of that company's directors of corporate finance and also spent time with Prudential Securities. [11]

Fichera left Prudential in 2000 to form Saber Partners, a public advisory firm based in New York. He founded the firm along with William B. Moore, the CEO of Westar Energy from 2007 to 2011. [6] Some of the firm's first clients included Exxon Corporation and the Governor of the State of California. The firm became notable for its work in the $40 billion securitization bond market for ratepayer bonds that are used to fund power utilities. [6] Fichera pushed for the United Kingdom's Financial Services Authority to recognize ratepayer bonds as a form of government guaranteed debt, allowing the bonds to be sold to investors in the United Kingdom and other European countries at a lower rate than investors in the United States. [6] The new marketplace reduced the interest cost that utilities paid on interest for the bonds. [6] Fichera worked with government regulators in Wisconsin, Texas, Vermont, New Jersey, Florida and West Virginia with ratepayer bonds. [6]

Fichera's Saber Partners partnered with The Blackstone Group to advise then Governor Gray Davis during the California electricity crisis of 2000 and 2001, on the state's potential acquisition of the investor-owned utilities electric transmission lines. [12] The results included potentially selling of up to $33 billion of bonds to save utility companies from going bankrupt and stabilize the electricity market. [12] Fichera has been a consistent critic of auction rate securities. In 2006, he was hired by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as an expert advisor into its probe of security bidding practices. [6] Its investigation led to a cease and desist order being issued to 15 banks, all of whom settled with the SEC for $13 million without having to admit any violations. [6]

He has advocated greater transparency in securities markets, especially for corporate securitized and asset-backed debt. In November 2014, in a New York Times op-ed, Fichera also proposed that the S.E.C. adopt a points system in addition to fines similar to a D.M.V. in order to change the behavior of repeat offenders through a more effective deterrent. [13]

As an expert on auction rate securities, Fichera is often quoted on the subject by major news publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg Businessweek. [14] [15] [16] He also has served as an adjunct visiting lecturer in public and international affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. [17] In April 2018, Fichera received The National Italian American Foundation Special Achievement Award in Finance for his "considerable accomplishments in the world of corporate finance." [18]

Related Research Articles

Stock exchange Organization that provides services for stock brokers and traders to trade securities

A stock exchange, securities exchange, or bourse, is an exchange where stockbrokers and traders can buy and sell securities, such as shares of stock, bonds, and other financial instruments. Stock exchanges may also provide facilities for the issue and redemption of such securities and instruments and capital events including the payment of income and dividends. Securities traded on a stock exchange include stock issued by listed companies, unit trusts, derivatives, pooled investment products and bonds. Stock exchanges often function as "continuous auction" markets with buyers and sellers consummating transactions via open outcry at a central location such as the floor of the exchange or by using an electronic trading platform.

Morgan Stanley American financial services company

Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment Management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the firm's clients include corporations, governments, institutions, and individuals. Morgan Stanley ranked No. 61 in the 2021 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.

Goldman Sachs American investment bank

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in New York City.

United States Treasury security US government debt instruments

United States Treasury securities, also called Treasuries or Treasurys, are government debt instruments issued by the United States Department of the Treasury to finance government spending as an alternative to taxation. Since 2012, U.S. government debt has been managed by the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, succeeding the Bureau of the Public Debt.

Salomon Brothers Former American investment bank

Salomon Brothers, Inc., was an American multinational bulge bracket investment bank headquartered in New York. It was one of the five largest investment banking enterprises in the United States and the most profitable firm on Wall Street during the 1980s and 1990s. Its CEO and chairman at that time, John Gutfreund, was nicknamed "the King of Wall Street".

Henry Blodget American businessman, investor and journalist

Henry McKelvey Blodget is an American businessman, investor and journalist. He is notable for his former career as a equity research analyst who was senior Internet analyst for CIBC Oppenheimer and the head of the global Internet research team at Merrill Lynch during the dot-com era. Due to his violations of securities laws and subsequent civil trial conviction, Blodget is permanently banned from involvement in the securities industry. Blodget is the CEO of Business Insider.

Collateralized debt obligation Financial product

A collateralized debt obligation (CDO) is a type of structured asset-backed security (ABS). Originally developed as instruments for the corporate debt markets, after 2002 CDOs became vehicles for refinancing mortgage-backed securities (MBS). Like other private label securities backed by assets, a CDO can be thought of as a promise to pay investors in a prescribed sequence, based on the cash flow the CDO collects from the pool of bonds or other assets it owns. Distinctively, CDO credit risk is typically assessed based on a probability of default (PD) derived from ratings on those bonds or assets.

Dean Witter Reynolds was an American stock brokerage and securities firm catering to a variety of clients. Prior to the company's acquisition, it was among the largest firms in the securities industry with over 9,000 account executives and was among the largest members of the New York Stock Exchange. The company served over 3.2 million clients primarily in the U.S. Dean Witter provided debt and equity underwriting and brokerage as mutual funds and other saving and investment products for individual investors. The company's asset management arm, Dean Witter InterCapital, with total assets of $90.0 billion prior to the acquisition, was one of the largest asset management operations in the U.S.

Drexel Burnham Lambert American investment bank

Drexel Burnham Lambert was an American multinational investment bank that was forced into bankruptcy in 1990 due to its involvement in illegal activities in the junk bond market, driven by senior executive Michael Milken. At its height, it was a Bulge Bracket bank, as the fifth-largest investment bank in the United States.

Moody's Investors Service, often referred to as Moody's, is the bond credit rating business of Moody's Corporation, representing the company's traditional line of business and its historical name. Moody's Investors Service provides international financial research on bonds issued by commercial and government entities. Moody's, along with Standard & Poor's and Fitch Group, is considered one of the Big Three credit rating agencies. It is also included in the Fortune 500 list of 2021.

Jefferies Group LLC is an American multinational independent investment bank and financial services company that is headquartered in New York City. The firm provides clients with capital markets and financial advisory services, institutional brokerage, securities research, and asset management. This includes mergers and acquisitions, restructuring, and other financial advisory services. The Capital Markets segment also includes its securities trading and investment banking activities.

Citadel LLC American hedge fund and financial services provider

Citadel LLC is an American multinational hedge fund and financial services company. Founded in 1990 by Kenneth C. Griffin, it has more than US$50 billion in assets under management as of May 2022. The company has more than 1,400 employees, with corporate headquarters in Chicago, operational headquarters in Manhattan, and offices throughout North America, Asia, and Europe. Founder, CEO and Co-CIO Kenneth C. Griffin owns approximately 85% of the firm.

Bache & Co.

Bache & Company was a securities firm that provided stock brokerage and investment banking services. The firm, which was founded in 1879, was based in New York, New York.

Auction rate security Debt instrument with a long-term nominal maturity with a regularly reset interest rate

An auction rate security (ARS) typically refers to a debt instrument with a long-term nominal maturity for which the interest rate is regularly reset through a Dutch auction. Since February 2008, most such auctions have failed, and the auction market has been largely frozen. In late 2008, investment banks that had marketed and distributed auction rate securities agreed to repurchase most of them at par.

Halsey, Stuart was a Chicago-based investment bank founded in 1911.

Paul V. Scura was the former Executive Vice President and Head of the Investment Bank of Prudential Securities, a subsidiary of Prudential Financial, from 1986 to 2000. He was responsible for the firm's efforts in the areas of Mergers and Acquisitions, Restructuring and Reorganization, Private Finance, High Yield Finance and all International and US Investment Banking. Paul Scura also sat on the Business Review Committee and was a member of the firm's Operating Council. He was a voting member of the Investment Committee of four separate private equity funds and Prudential Securities merchant banking fund, Prudential-Bache Interfunding. In February 1998, he joint ventured with the former EMI/Capitol Music chairman Charles Koppelman for musicians to cash in on music royalties.

Richard B. "Rich" Handler is an American businessman, and chief executive officer (CEO) of Jefferies Group since 2001; one of the longest-serving CEOs on Wall Street. Handler is also the CEO of Jefferies Financial Group, Inc, a diversified financial services company.

Apollo Global Management American private equity firm

Apollo Global Management, Inc. is an American global alternative investment management firm. It invests in credit, private equity, and real assets. As of December 31, 2020, the company had $498 billion of assets under management, including $328.6 billion invested in credit, including mezzanine capital, hedge funds, non-performing loans and collateralized loan obligations, $80.7 billion invested in private equity, and $46.2 billion invested in real assets, which includes real estate and infrastructure. The company invests money on behalf of pension funds, financial endowments and sovereign wealth funds, as well as other institutional and individual investors. Since inception in 1990, private equity funds managed by Apollo have produced a 24% internal rate of return (IRR) to investors, net of fees.

Lord, Abbett & Co. LLC is an independent, privately-held investment management company headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey. The firm offers a variety of fixed−income and equity strategies to individual and institutional investors. Lord Abbett has a global presence with offices in London, Dublin, Paris, Tokyo, and Montevideo.

David Weild IV

David Weild IV is a stock market expert best known for his position as Vice Chairman of NASDAQ. He is currently the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Weild & Co. Inc., parent company of the investment banking firm Weild Capital, LLC Weild is also known as the "father" of the JOBS Act, and has been involved in drafting legislation for the US Congress.

References

  1. ↑ "Joseph Fichera commentary on CNN". CNN. YouTube. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  2. ↑ Rabin, Jeffrey L. (4 August 2001). "Advisors Own No Electricity Stocks". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 Winkler, Matthew (13 December 1988). "Smith Barney's Fichera Winning Business Duels With His Sabres Issues, Including Exxon Corp". The Wall Street Journal.
  4. ↑ Gillers, Heather; Grotto, Jason (10 November 2014). "Banks kept CPS in shaky bond market". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  5. ↑ Benson, Mitchel; Zuckerman, Gregory (31 July 2001). "California's Next Test in Its Power Crisis: Selling $12.5 Billion of Electricity Bonds". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Quint, Michael (30 May 2008). "Wall Street's Customer's Man Unmasked Auction-Rate". Bloomberg. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  7. ↑ Fichera, Joseph S. "In Memoriam: Sebastian Joseph Fichera, 1920 - 2013". Saber Partners official website. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  8. ↑ Fichera, Joseph Sebastian (1976). "Politics, Personality and Budgeting in the States: The Case of New Jersey".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. ↑ "New Preferred Shares Open Windows". Business International Money Report. 7 May 2008.
  10. ↑ Kuhn, Robert Lawrence (1990). Capital Raising and Financial Structure, Volume 2. Dow Jones-Irwin. ISBN   9781556232497.
  11. ↑ "Power to Fichera". Institutional Investor. 1 June 2001. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  12. 1 2 Brull, Steven (July 2001). "Joseph Fichera headed to Sacramento to help keep the lights on". Institutional Investor. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  13. ↑ Fichera, Joseph (11 November 2014). "The S.E.C. Should Copy the D.M.V." The New York Times. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
  14. ↑ Morgenson, Gretchen (13 April 2008). "It's a Long, Cold, Cashless Siege". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  15. ↑ Smith, Randall; Rapparport, Liz (9 August 2008). "UBS to Pay $19 Billion As Auction Mess Hits Wall Street". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  16. ↑ Preston, Darrell (25 July 2014). "Window Closing to Challenge Wall Street Over Swaps: Muni Credit". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  17. ↑ "Looming Threats in the Public Finance". Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. YouTube. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  18. ↑ "NIAF New York Gala 2018 Review | The National Italian American Foundation". www.niaf.org. Retrieved 2018-05-31.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.