Firms will combine efforts to serve domestic financial institutions and provide a complete offering to clients for interest rate derivatives hedging and fixed income advisory
Sandler O’Neill, a full-service investment banking firm specializing in financial services companies, and Derivative Path, a financial technology firm offering both a state of the art derivative trading platform and last-mile trade execution support, have joined forces to serve regional and community banking clients. Through this strategic partnership, the two firms will work together to help clients gain access to a leading interest rate derivatives trading and compliance management platform, as well as best-in-class balance sheet analysis and strategy resources.
“Regional and community financial institutions have been contending with years of low interest rates combined with a tough regulatory environment and increased competition. We believe that overall balance sheet needs should dictate Asset/Liability decisions, and derivatives can be a useful tool for addressing those needs,” said Scott Hildenbrand, Principal and Chief Balance Sheet Strategist at Sandler O’Neill. “In looking for a partner to help our clients develop hedging programs, we wanted to work with a team who could provide a platform that was more than just trading and execution services, but also a tool that reduced the compliance and regulatory burden on management and treasury teams. After conducting a thorough search, Derivative Path emerged as a category leader who could provide all the support and technology to meet the needs of our clients.”
Fred Price, Founding and Managing Principal at Sandler O’Neill added, “Back-to-back swap programs are a tool we are excited to offer to our clients to help them compete in this tough lending environment while they grow their lending franchises and earn fee income. We are very excited to form this partnership and offer clients access to Derivative Path’s technology and expertise. We intend to use their team and the DerivativeEDGETM platform exclusively to execute our client’s interest rate derivative transactions. Derivative Path will actively work with our clients to help them set up hedging programs from start to finish for both balance sheet hedging and customer-facing back-to-back programs,” continued Price.
“We are thrilled and honored to be partnering with Sandler O’Neill, one of the most respected financial institution-focused investment banks in the United States,” said Pradeep Bhatia, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Derivative Path. “This partnership is a win-win for both Sandler clients, as well as Derivative Path’s clients. Sandler is a thought leader in the field of balance sheet advisory for financial institutions in the United States, and now Derivative Path clients will have access to these resources and benefit from Sandler’s balance sheet strategy expertise. We look forward to a long relationship together.”
