RBC Capital Markets' Keith Solomon returns full time to munis as head of FICC Municipal Markets at the firm where he will take over reporting responsibility for all municipal sales, trading, underwriting and short-term/money market activities.
Solomon will report to Mark Maroney, co-head of global spread products.
Maroney and Bob Spangler, head of municipal finance, at RBC said: “We’re looking forward to Keith taking on additional leadership responsibility, driving strong sales, trading and underwriting results while contributing to maintaining a consistent top four negotiated senior manager ranking.”
Solomon's role will combine his current responsibilities in the FICC Municipal platform overseeing data strategy/algorithmic trading and municipal opportunity trading units, with the bond sales, trading and underwriting teams.
Solomon said RBC has been focused on incorporating technology more into its business workflows, noting the growing electronification of the marketplace as a driver to make business more efficient, where RBC is already viewed as a strong provider of client leading tools through its “Elevate” platform.
"We're already embracing technology across our platforms, have been for a number of years," Solomon said. "We've taken a two-prong approach, looking at parts of the market where we can leverage technology and connectivity and then we recognize that the municipal market is a little more bifurcated than other markets, so we are trying to find ways we can add our own value in those other areas."
The market turmoil in March and April highlighted the need for RBC to incorporate more of its own expertise, including looking at price development and evaluations.
"That's where we're trying to leverage data and technology so we can have our own views or supplement pricing services and other data providers,” he said. "No one wants to be fully be reliant on pricing services, but they certainly need to be a part of it."
Looking to 2021, Solomon said RBC's expectations are rates will remain low, and that in an area like the short-term space, it can work against money funds, which can be challenging, but he expects robust new issuance to continue and the municipal market to perform well in the New Year.
Solomon said RBC will look to continue to expand its overall municipal footprint by more closely integrating the various pieces on its platform — new issues, secondary activity, electronic capabilities.
"How do we bring that all together to make better, more informed decisions for this market?" he asked.
Prior to RBC Capital Markets, Solomon worked in equity research at Susquehanna Financial Group, fixed income research at Morgan Keegan, and asset management at Goldman Sachs.
Solomon has a bachelor of science degree with a double major in economics and computer science from Yale University and an MBA with a double major in finance and accounting from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is a CFA Charterholder and holds the Financial Risk Manager (FRM) designation as well Series 7, 24, 53, and 63 licenses.
