Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

The company's prior New York headquarters was located on the 88th and 89th floors of the World Trade Center's South tower at the time of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Out of the firm's 172 New York employees, 67 died as a result of the attack when the South tower collapsed.[14] Among the employees killed in the attack were the firm's co-CEO Joseph Berry, CFO Jeffrey Fox, as well as several notable research analysts Christopher W. Murphy, David Berry, Dean Eberling and Thomas Theurkauf.[15]

The firm has held an annual 9/11 memorial service and also maintains a charitable fund it set up to help victims' families.[15]

On July 25, 2018, the New York City medical examiner announced that the remains of another employee killed in the attack, 26-year-old Scott Michael Johnson, had been identified using methods of DNA analysis that were not available in 2001. Johnson worked as a securities analyst for the company.[16]

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Limited

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Investment banking
Founded	2004
Defunct	2014
Fate	Liquidated
Headquarters	London, United Kingdom
Key people	Vasco Moreno (CEO & Director of European Research)
Revenue	$30.3 million (2010)
Total assets	$10.6 million (2010)
Number of employees	66 (2010)
Parent	Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

In the late 1990s the firm began considering a move into Europe on the back of resurgent demand for specialist equity research and brokerage houses. The firm held abortive merger talks with London-based boutique investment bank Fox-Pitt, Kelton in 1998, and had been engaged in discussions with BNP about a possible acquisition in early 2001.[15] The strategic expansion was postponed in late 2001 as the firm dealt with the fallout from the September 11 attacks.

In November 2004, KBW announced it would be investing $20 million into Europe with the intention of replicating its North American success by offering specialist research on 110 European financial stocks by 2005.[17]

The European subsidiary Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Limited was incorporated in London and by December 2004 the team had grown to 34.[18] Vasco Moreno was named as chief executive officer and director of European research, moving from rival European boutique Fox, Pitt Kelton.[13] KBW made 13 other senior hires from Fox-Pitt, including Richard Wynn-Griffith as Director of Equity Sales.[19][20]

The move was a financial success, with the European business raising the firm's profile and generating $20 million in revenue as early as 2005.[18] The firm also secured membership at the Euronext, London Stock Exchange, Deutsche Borse and SIX stock exchanges, a move which consolidated KBW's position as a specialist broker.[21]

In 2014, the European subsidiary was absorbed by Stifel Financial's London business after the merger between the two parent companies. Moreno resigned in October 2013.[18]

In 2005, KBW was the eighth largest trader of NASDAQ 100 financial stocks—greater than Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns, despite having only 430 employees.[22] For 2004 and 2005 the firm's investment bank was the No.1 ranked financial services M&A advisor and IPO manager globally, having advised on deals totalling $39 billion in 2005. The firm also ranked No.1 in five of their seven specialist research categories in a survey by Institutional Investor in December 2005.[23]

On the back of this success, KBW completed a $143 million initial public offering of stock, floating 6.8 million shares on 9 November 2006.[24] The firm was traded on the NYSE under the ticker 'KBW'.[25] The joint bookrunners for the initial public offering were Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc. and Merrill Lynch. As of the end of 2010, KBW employees owned approximately one-third of the stock in the firm.[26]

Following the success of the firm's foray into Europe in 2004, KBW announced in May 2010 it would be opening offices in Hong Kong and Tokyo offering research, sales & trading, and capital markets advisory to institutional clients in the Asia-Pacific region. The new equity research business targeted an additional 91 Asian financial services companies, making KBW's global research platform of 600 companies in 33 countries the largest specialist financial services research franchise.[27]

Bik San Leung was named as chief operating officer for KBW's Asian franchise, supervising 16 initial hires in Hong Kong and 4 in Tokyo.[28] As in Europe, much of the firm's senior staff had been hired from Fox-Pitt, Kelton's Asian business.[29] Thomas Michaud and Vasco Moreno were also appointed as Non-Executive Directors to oversee the development of the franchise.[28]

On 5 November 2012, Stifel Financial announced they would be acquiring KBW in its entirety for $575 million. KBW was the third bank to merge with Stifel since 2010 as part of Stifel's efforts to become the pre-eminent middle-market investment bank. The merger was completed on 15 February 2013. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods retained its own identity as a specialist in financial services operating under the Stifel umbrella, and Thomas Michaud retained his role as chief executive officer of KBW and was made a member of Stifel’s Institutional Group Management Committee.

KBW provides strategic advisory to private equity groups and corporations offering debt, equity & convertible capital raising, mergers & acquisitions and restructuring services.[30]

KBW offers equity and fixed income sales & trading services to institutional clients. The firm levers Stifel's technology to provide acquisition integration, balance sheet advisory, investment portfolio analysis and reporting as well as product-specific strategies designed to improve overall performance.[31]

Together with Stifel, KBW's Equity Research division is the industry's largest provider of small and mid-cap equity research. The firms cover 1,600 global companies in 12 sectors and remain the provider with the broadest global financial coverage. The firm also provides macroeconomic research on the global financial services sector, FinTech and has a quantitative analysis group.[32]

KBW helps state and local government agencies raise capital and implement financing strategies that allow them to build and maintain infrastructure for the communities they serve.[33]

Together with Stifel, the firm's Equity Capital Markets group is responsible for the origination, underwriting, marketing, allocation and pricing of equity and equity-linked offerings across all sectors. KBW has been ranked the No.1 bookrunner of financial services common stock offerings since 2015, with a 71% market share since 2018.[34]