The professionals in Rice Financial’s Taxable Fixed Income Group (TFIG) are specialists in designing custom investments for state and local governments. In addition, their expertise in the sale of taxable municipal bonds became increasingly important in 2009 as taxable Build America Bonds (BABs) transformed the marketplace.

In 2006, Rice’s TFIG sold $4.1 billion in par amount from sales desks in Illinois and Pennsylvania. The firm more than tripled that amount in 2009, selling a total of $15.7 billion in taxable fixed income securities. Virtually all of this business was done on a competitive basis. To support its rapidly growing TFIG business, Rice Financial added two professionals to its ranks in 2009, bringing the firm’s total TFIG staff to five. The firm also opened a new TFIG desk in North Carolina.

Rice Financial’s experience and financial strength have enabled the firm to “construct” investments in accordance with municipal customers’ needs, meeting their specific maturity dates and/or desired yields. Since 2007, Rice has constructed and served as the senior or co-senior manager for new issue agency securities totaling more than $775 million.

Rice Financial also grew its taxable bond underwriting business substantially in 2009, providing underwriting services on 39 taxable bond transactions totaling $8.2 billion, compared to only 5 issues in 2008 totaling $4.3 billion. Eleven of the taxable transactions the firm completed in 2009 ($3.5 billion) involved Build America Bonds.