Home

Account Information

Company Overview

Private Client Services

Bank Equity Sales & Trading

Investment Banking

Asset Finance Services

Private Equity

Research

Capital Markets

Fixed Income

Contact Us

Career Opportunities

Howe Barnes News

 

Fixed Income

Howe Barnes Hoefer & Arnett, Inc. provides fixed income products to our clients through a partnership with Vining Sparks.

The initiative with Vining Sparks IBG offers each company an opportunity to capitalize on their core strengths. Howe Barnes will deliver fixed income services to their banking customers and private clients utilizing Vining Sparks resources, products and services. Howe Barnes will provide equity capital market products and investment banking services to Vining Sparks national client base. This offers Howe Barnes a nationwide platform for its highly regarded bank sales, trading, research and corporate finance practice.

Vining Sparks is a nationally recognized leading broker/dealer serving the investment needs of institutional investors. The firm was established in 1981 by Jim Vining to serve the investment and asset/liability needs of community banks. Mr. Vining's former experience as an officer at the Federal Reserve and an executive vice president at Union Planters National Bank provided a unique platform for the vision he had for the firm. High interest rates and high inflation, coupled with banking deregulation, had created an environment in which banks needed practical solutions to manage interest rate risk. Mr. Vining wrote the first computer-based asset/liability model for community banks and integrated it into the decision-making process for investment portfolio management. The combination has proven to be invaluable to the banking industry and the firm has grown rapidly.

Initially staffed with 17 people, Vining Sparks now employs over 300 people in 12 domestic offices and an office in London. The firm has maintained its' presence in the banking industry, currently transacting securities business with more than 2,600 banks. In addition, Vining Sparks has grown well beyond its initial customer base of community banks. The current customer base includes hundreds of other clients such as savings and loans, municipalities, money managers, trust departments, insurance companies, pension funds, and investment advisors. Vining Sparks has over $45 million in capital and an annual trading volume exceeding $250 billion with customers located in all 50 states and many foreign countries.

An overview of Vining Sparks' services for financial institutions is presented below:

  • Vining Sparks is one of the world's top 15 underwriters of newly issued debt by agencies of the U.S. Government. As such, they can structure deals specifically for you or alert you to new deals as they come to market.

  • As a regional dealer, they have "one call access" to a wide array of primary dealer and regional inventories (including those you are not regularly dealing with). Vining Sparks' active trading desk is staffed by 25 trading professionals and despite having their own inventory, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, they are not limited solely to their own inventory.

  • Vining Sparks' Performance Profile contains an executive summary of your institution's portfolio performance, asset/liability position, national/local peer group comparison, portfolio characteristics and cashflow ladder including color charts and graphs with recommendations. Overhead transparencies can be provided to assist with presentations to your Investment Committee.

  • Through an in-house proprietary system, Vining Sparks can provide monthly pricing for virtually all fixed income securities. This system utilizes a variety of electronic pricing services and then selects the best source for each market sector and sector type. This approach is more accurate than using a single pricing source or a pricing matrix.

  • Another Vining Sparks' proprietary system compares your holdings to specific securities that pass through their inventory. When "matchers" are noted, you are notified of the opportunity to "add on" to your current position. This is especially helpful to portfolio managers who wish to limit the number of securities owned.

  • Investors in securities with imbedded options such as callable debt and mortgage-related securities will find the VPORT system very helpful. This in-house system provides three services to assist in the regular management of these securities: 1) Immediate notification of called securities by daily electronic monitoring 2) Predicted call dates updated regularly based on the current treasury curve and newly issued security levels 3) Five-year, month-by-month projection of cash flows based on predicted calls and projected prepayment speeds on amortizing securities. This system is also used to produce the Performance Profile mentioned above.

  • Derivative Solutions® is a commercially available software system designed to assist total return portfolio managers with index optimization. Vining Sparks is a licensed user of Derivative Solutions® and runs this program for their financial institution customers who require it.

Additional specific services, which Vining Sparks deliver to their financial institution clients, are as follows:

Bond Accounting System
State-of-the-art bond accounting reports run on the Paragon system (owned by the ABS Group). User-friendly reports and flexibility to accommodate user requests supported by a full time staff of CPAs and programmers makes this package an important asset to many financial institutions.

Safekeeping
Vining Sparks offers the safekeeping of your bonds through Bank of New York and/or Bankers Trust Co., New York. This service includes the issuance of safekeeping receipts, timely principal and interest payments, and fees that are competitive within the industry.

Peer Group
Comparisons Vining Sparks will prepare a comparison of any financial institution to a national or state peer group. They can also compare your institution to multiple (up to 6) specific local competitors in the same report.

The Market Review
Fixed income market and economic commentary, including economic release calendar for the coming week and current offering levels on the investments most frequently purchased by financial institutions, is provided weekly.

Strategic Insight Research Reports
Vining Sparks provides executive summaries of new products or transaction ideas.

Sample Investment & Asset/Liability Policies
Includes consideration of all new or proposed regulations and incorporates security purchase/sale documentation checklists.

Regional Seminars
One and two day seminars are conducted on products and how to select the products that fit a financial institution's specific needs. Seminars are held annually in several locations nationwide.

On the Web
Please visit our website for other information applicable to your financial institution. www.viningsparks.com

If you have any questions, please contact Bill Sammon at Howe Barnes, 800-800-4693 or Randy Wade at Vining Sparks, 800-829-0321.

 

Howe Barnes Hoefer & Arnett, Inc. ©2006 All Rights Reserved.

 

222 South Riverside Plaza, 7th Floor • Chicago, Illinois 60606