Beacon News

BEACON CAPITAL STRATEGIES EXPANDS SENIOR MANAGEMENT TEAM, Hires Veteran Mortgage Hedge Fund Manager David Weisberger As Co-CEO As Platform Plans Significant Growth; Taps John Knox As Head of Sales

September 9, 2009 -- Coinciding with the recent expansion of its platform to include trading in all mortgage-backed (MBS) and asset-backed (ABS) securities, Beacon Capital Strategies, Inc., today announced two senior appointments that reflect the firm’s plans to significantly grow over the months ahead.

David Weisberger, a veteran mortgage derivatives investment manager who founded Watch Hill Investment Partners LLC, has joined the firm as co-CEO to work with senior management to further build the platform’s business. Beacon Capital Strategies has been expanding the base of buy- and sell-side users of its Trade Discovery electronic marketplace, which is dedicated to trading the complete range of MBS and ABS. The level of postings and trading activity is up significantly over the last two months, reflecting an expanded product line up, as well as market participants’ needs to efficiently conduct price discovery and locate liquidity in the markets.

"This is an opportune time for market participants to embrace a trading platform that will assist them in finding both liquidity and price transparency in the current, difficult market environment," said Mr. Weisberger. "With the recent addition of non-agency MBS, ABS and CMBS to the platform, we have a bigger opportunity than ever to help market participants reach their trading goals."

Mr. Weisberger, who serves as co-CEO along with founder Norman Epstein, is one of the best-known investors in mortgage derivatives. He launched several funds and private accounts under Watch Hill Management Partners LLC, and, from 1994 to 2006, saw firm assets grow to more than $1 billion with average net returns of more than 20% a year. Recently, Mr. Weisberger has been consulting to several financial services companies. He was a Managing Director at Prudential Securities in mortgage- and asset-backed analytics prior to launching his fund business.

“We are very excited to have David join us at this time,” said Mr. Epstein. “His deep experience and knowledge of mortgage securities markets will be of great assistance as we seek to grow our Trade Discovery Platform to the next level. Fixed income investors are becoming very attuned to finding best executions, and we believe our platform is uniquely positioned to help them achieve these goals.”

In addition, John Knox has joined the firm as Managing Director of Sales and Marketing. In this role, he will oversee all sales and support functions and will seek to further build out the sales team.

"I am excited to work with our client base and provide them with the electronic platform that they have requested,” said Mr. Knox. “Our clients have expressed strong interest in Trade Discovery as an improvement to their everyday workflow and we will continue to be responsive to their needs"

Most recently, Mr. Knox was a Managing Director in the Institutional Equities Division at Bear Stearns & Co., where he worked on developing an electronic trading platform for equities for institutional clients. He previously was a fixed income trader at Eastbridge Capital, Wertheim Schroder and Manufacturers Hanover.

Beacon Capital Strategies set to Expand Electronic Trading to Include Non-Agency MBS, ABS and CMBS on July 10th

June 23, 2009 -- Beacon Capital Strategies, Inc., which operates a marketplace dedicated to electronic trading in the mortgage-backed securities (MBS) market, today announced that it plans to add trading in non-agency MBS, ABS and CMBS beginning July 10. This move marks a significant expansion of the firm’s Trade Discovery Platform, which has been trading agency MBS since its launch in April 2008.

Effective July 10, market participants will be able to trade the full range of private label or non-agency MBS including residential MBS and commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS). In addition, the full array of ABS will be accessible, including auto loans, credit card and home equity ABS.

“The addition of non-agency MBS, ABS and CMBS trading is a natural step in the growth and development of our platform,” said Rob Barsky, COO and co-founder of Beacon Capital Strategies. “Market participants have urged us to add these less liquid securities to the platform and, given the challenges in the current market, we believe the timing is right to offer this expanded line up.”

Trade Discovery is a unique marketplace in that it is exclusively dedicated to trading the full range of MBS and ABS for both the buy and sell side. The platform has enjoyed growth over the past year, adding a significant number of new participants.

“Our customers are receptive to our trading model and, in this environment, have found it an excellent way to conduct price discovery,” said Barsky. “We think this is an important time to release trading in these securities as the Administration advances its PPIP program using a funding mechanism like the successful TALF program. Holders of so-called legacy bonds will want to make those available to the new sources of investment coming to market, explicitly to own those bonds.

Beacon Capital Markets will act as executing broker for all non-agency MBS, ABS and CMBS trades and Broadcort, a leading provider of clearing and settlement services that is a division of Merrill Lynch, will clear and settle the trades.

Market participants can locate and trade non-agency MBS and ABS using search methods specifically fine-tuned for these securities. Trades are negotiated anonymously and automatically captured, creating an electronic audit trail.

“Our platform is focused on providing price discovery and efficient executions,” said Barsky. “Particularly at a time when market participants face challenges trading in these markets, our platform represents a tool providing more efficient access to pools of liquidity.”

Broadridge and Beacon Announce Strategic Alliance to Address Liquidity Challenges in the Fixed-Income Market

Lake Success, New York – March 30, 2009 – Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:BR), a leading global provider of technology-based outsourcing solutions to the financial services industry, and Beacon Capital Strategies, Inc., which operates a marketplace dedicated to providing liquidity and electronic trading in the less-liquid fixed-income market, today announced a multi-year strategic alliance. Through this alliance, the firms are positioned to better serve their clients who actively trade less-liquid fixed-income securities including agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS), asset-backed securities (ABS), and collateralized mortgage obligations (CMO).

Broadridge is a leading fixed-income securities processing provider and currently handles on average over $3 trillion in notional value of U.S. fixed-income securities transactions daily. Beacon established the first trading platform tailored to the specific dynamics of the less-liquid fixed-income market, which is open to all participants on an anonymous and equal basis. This strategic alliance will help the firms’ clients locate difficult-to-find securities in the less-liquid fixed-income segment, thereby enhancing liquidity and efficiency to the overall marketplace.

By utilizing Broadridge’s industry-leading impactSM and MBS Expert® products and Beacon’s cutting-edge Trade DiscoveryTM platform, clients will be able to search through the largest universe of less-liquid fixed-income securities, find the other side of the trade for instruments that meet specific investment criteria, and transact on liquidity that otherwise would not be publicly advertised in current trading channels.

“Broadridge has a long-standing commitment to its clients and helping them effectively navigate key business issues, such as the current market environment and liquidity crunch. Through this alliance with Beacon, our clients and other trading participants will now be able to tap into a new source of liquidity, streamline the trading process, and ultimately increase trading P&L. This alliance underscores Broadridge’s commitment to enable its clients to achieve higher levels of business growth as well as create solutions that address the industry’s biggest challenges. We are extremely excited to enter into this relationship with an industry innovator such as Beacon,” said J. Michael Hopkins, General Manager & SVP, Securities Processing Solutions, Fixed-Income, U.S., Broadridge.

Commenting on the alliance, Robert Barsky, Chief Operating Officer, Beacon said, “This alliance enables us to provide a powerful combination of inventory management and trading heretofore unavailable in the industry. We are very excited about rolling out this capability to the marketplace.”

Beacon Increases Customer Base by 95% in 2nd and 3rd Quarter 2008

November 1, 2008 — Beacon Capital Strategies, Inc., a provider of fixed income trading software for Mortgage Backed Securities , announced today that their participant base has grown by 95% since March.

Clients include major buy side and sell side institutions. “We believe that the inability of some dealers to support trading in this marketplace has given us an opportunity to attract new, major participants. We are capitalizing on that opportunity by providing clients with an alternative venue for liquidity in these instruments,” said Norm Epstein, Chief Executive Officer.

System activity has also increased as a result of the new participants. Beacon reports that the number of bonds and the current face value of offerings posted each day has risen 6-fold since 1 st Quarter 2008. “These numbers validate our thesis that institutions are looking more closely at diversifying their counterparties. We feel our technology is the most sophisticated offering in this space,” said Rob Barsky, Chief Operating Officer.

Beacon Launches Agency CMOs and Strip MBS Trading

January 3, 2008 — Beacon Capital Strategies, Inc. today announced the launch of Agency CMOs and Strip MBS trading on Trade Discovery, an electronic trading platform for less liquid bonds. Traders can locate and trade CMOs using search methods fine-tuned to structured MBS products. Beacon delivers a unique marketplace to fixed income traders by allowing counterparties to negotiate anonymously with each other.

The announcement marks Beacon’s latest initiative to expand its product offering for agency-issued mortgage backed securities. Previous launches included fixed rate and variable rate MBS. Also included in this launch is the ability to export information relevant to live inventory on the platform so participants can perform their analysis using their own tools.

“Our customers have been very receptive to Beacon’s trading model. In response to strong demand for structured mortgage products on the platform, we are pleased to announce the introduction of CMOs and Strip MBS on Trade Discovery. We continue to work closely with our customers to improve the scope and capabilities of our marketplace,” said Arnold Roxas, Beacon’s Product Manager.

Beacon Announces Launch of ARMs and Hybrid ARMs on Trade Discovery System

November 17, 2007 — Beacon Capital Strategies, Inc. announced today the start of trading in Adjustable Rate Mortgages on Trade Discovery™, Beacon’s electronic trading platform for less liquid fixed-income securities.

Agency-issued and Hybrid ARMs are the first asset class added to the fixed-rate, agency-issued, mortgage-backed securities which have been offered through the platform since January of this year. More than 900,000 securities are eligible to be traded, with comprehensive descriptions and real-time reference prices available to participants.

Beacon has announced plans to introduce agency Collateralized Mortgage Obligations, known as CMOs, in the coming weeks.

Beacon Announces Over $1 Billion in Bonds Available on Trade Discovery™ Trading System

August 7, 2007 — Beacon Capital Strategies, Inc. announced today that for the month of July, there were over $1 billion in live offerings every day. The offerings were all in agency MBS securities, the first asset class that Beacon has launched for trading on Trade Discovery™, an electronic trading platform for less liquid fixed-income instruments.

Trading on Trade Discovery began in January of this year. The company has announced plans to expand trading to agency ARMs and CMOs.

Beacon Announces Launch of Trading System

January 16, 2007 — Beacon Capital Strategies, LLC, announced today the launch of Trade Discovery™, an electronic trading platform for less liquid bonds. The system gives participants the capability to anonymously trade over 850,000 agency-issued, fixed-rate, mortgage-backed securities (MBS).

Trade Discovery will be expanded in the agency and non-agency MBS space in the coming months to round out the MBS offering, to be followed by other fixed-income asset classes.