Jim Burton, a 30-year municipal bond specialist, is taking the helm of national municipal sales at StoneX Group, an institutional-grade financial services network that is in the midst of expanding its municipal operations.
“My main goal is to grow a team of seasoned professionals, to expand StoneX’s presence in the muni bond space,” Burton told The Bond Buyer on Tuesday, adding that he initially aims to expand the municipal bond team with a focus on both liquidity and distribution.
Burton comes to StoneX after recently leading the team in municipal bonds at
The global firm has a large fixed-income team and made a decision to expand its municipal resources, seeing opportunity in the sector at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Burton's hire is viewed as the cornerstone for laying a distribution foundation for the firm’s municipal bond space, according to Peter Delahunt, the firm’s managing director of municipal securities.
His overall industry expertise — and his solid knowledge of municipal bonds specifically — makes Burton a perfect fit for StoneX, he said.
“Jim has a blue ribbon Rolodex of contacts on both the sell side and the buy side,” Delahunt told The Bond Buyer. “I couldn't imagine a better requisite for the role of national sales manager.”
Delahunt himself was
During his time at Raymond James, Delahunt was a quantitative analyst, institutional portfolio manager and national sales manager in the municipal bond trading space. As a senior vice president and the national trading manager in the broker dealer's New York City office, he oversaw risk management for both the trading and underwriting operations, along with developing marketing programs for the sales force.
Burton officially started at StoneX on Feb. 1 and is based in Charlotte.
“We feel fortunate to have Jim join the StoneX team, as he is well respected within the muni industry,” Delahunt said.
In his new role, Burton plans to leverage his extensive network of industry contacts to create a team that acts as a top-tier counter-party to StoneX’s clients, he said.
“I feel that I can leverage both my experience and network to help establish StoneX as a top player, while growing our overall footprint in the municipal space,” Burton said.
He said his growth plan involves building a team of talented individuals who can provide “quality relative value ideas, in addition to providing our clients with added value.”
Delahunt said the firm hopes to add eight to 10 sales people to Burton’s team.
The StoneX municipal team currently includes eight traders, three underwriters, five institutional sales people and no retail.
“StoneX has a growth strategy that includes adding more tools to our toolbox, but we don't intend to put the cart in front of the horse,” he said.
“The goal is to put together a first-class distribution network to complement our savvy trading desk,” Delahunt said, adding that Burton will utilize his contacts for potential sales staff recommendations and also create processes to provide liquidity and maximize distribution efficiency.
“His strong relationships and vast network of contacts will allow Jim to recruit a first-class salesforce and expand upon our already robust platform,” Delahunt said.
StoneX Group Inc., a global Fortune-500 company headquartered in New York City and listed on the NASDAQ as SNEX, has over 3,000 employees and more than 35,000 commercial and institutional clients, and more than 340,000 active retail accounts in 40 offices on five continents, according to the company.
