Dallas-based Hilltop Securities continues its expansion into the Midwest region with the opening of an office in Cleveland, Ohio, to be led by Kevin Barry, a former managing director at Huntington Bank.
The Cleveland office will focus on public finance and fixed income markets and Barry will service the investing needs of state and local municipalities in the Midwest, a spokesperson for the firm said.
Barry has more than 20 years of experience in institutional fixed-income sales. Before Huntington, where he worked for just over three years, Barry was a principal in institutional fixed-income sales with Piper Jaffray, where he launched that firm's Cleveland office.
Hilltop has been in expansion mode in the region for the past couple of years. The addition of Barry and the Cleveland location mark the most recent moves in the Midwest. Since 2018, Hilltop Securities has opened six new offices and added investment bankers, underwriters, analysts, wealth management advisors, and sales and trading professionals in Ohio, Michigan, and Minnesota.
“Hilltop Securities is bringing national leading knowledge to the local Midwest markets across banking, sales, and trading,” Hilltop Securities President and CEO Brad Winges said in an email. “The Midwest’s transition from a manufacturing-based economy to a service economy has pushed issuers to find innovative ways to rebuild their infrastructure and invest in education and public works projects that support it.”
Winges said because of the region’s increased need for financing, the current environment provides the firm with an opportunity to add experienced local bankers, traders, and salespeople to serve issuers in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Minnesota and other Midwest states.
Hilltop has offices across the U.S. and its focuses include public finance; municipal and taxable fixed-income underwriting, sales, and trading; equity and portfolio trading; retail brokerage services; securities clearing; structured finance; and securities lending.
The firm has three offices in Ohio, in Cincinnati, Cleveland and Powell, with five public finance and fixed-income capital markets professionals. It has another three offices in the Midwest in St. Paul, Chicago and St. Louis, with 26 public finance and fixed-income capital markets professionals.
