Investment bank sets sights on providing “strategic financing alternatives”. Bear Stearns has hired William Sappington away from Merrill Lynch, where he was head of global securities-based lending, to spearhead its campaign to build a credit and lending program for private clients.

Sappington’s “talent and expertise will be invaluable in launching our program,” says Steve Dantus, head of Bear Stearns’ Private Client Services group, which caters to the investment bank’s high-net-worth clients.

Private bank-like

The new program is meant to complement Private Client Services’ Advisory Services wealth- and asset-management program.

“Through Advisory Services, investment professionals offer clients unique solutions to their wealth objectives, including asset allocation and investment selection strategies,” says Dantus. “With the credit and lending program, those investment professionals will now also provide strategic financing alternatives to this same sophisticated client base.”

Sappington, meanwhile, says he’s “excited” to be joining Bear Stearns. “The opportunity to develop a new area for Bear Stearns, coupled with the firm's world class Advisory Services platform and its reputation for innovative solutions to truly top-tier clients is enormously appealing.”

Bear Stearns Private Client Services has about 500 advisors in New York, Atlanta, Chicago, London, San Francisco, Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles, Seattle, St. Louis, Mo., Boca Raton, Fla., Providence, R.I, Columbus, Ohio and Northern New Jersey. –FWR

.