CRB Group, parent to Cross River Bank in Fort Lee, New Jersey, announced Monday that it would begin offering investment banking services to fintechs.
The company characterized the move as "doubling down on its commitment to serving the fintech community."
To lead the effort, Cross River has hired two industry veterans to serve as co-heads of investment banking, Benjamin Samuels from Morgan Staney and Henry Pinnell from the former SVB Securities. Samuels had served as Morgan Stanley's co-head of alternative capital solutions. Pinnell led fintech investment banking for SVB Securities, which was a subsidiary of the now-defunct SVB Financial Group and later was bought out by its management.
"We are proud to launch our investment banking division of our broker-dealer with two well-respected professionals, combining decades of experience in both the fintech industry and capital markets," Gilles Gade, Cross River's founder and CEO, said in a press release. "Ben and Henry are tasked with enhancing even further our product offering to our fintech partners and beyond, enabling us to solve the distinct needs of each and every client."
Gade began his own career as an investment banker at Bear Stearns. From 2000 to 2005, Gade served as managing director at Chela Partners, a boutique investment banking house in New York that focused on the emerging technology and telecommunications sectors.
Samuels and Pinnell will work out of a second CRB Group subsidiary, CRB Securities. Their arrival signals a significant expansion. Before Cross River unveiled its investment banking strategy, CRB Securities focused on private placement transactions, including asset-backed securities. Now, strategic advice on mergers and acquisitions, capital markets and other corporate finance matters is being added to the menu.
"We'll be working with companies spanning from seed stage to public, " a Cross River spokesperson wrote in an email. "The vision was always for us to be up and down the capital stack. Now, we'll be able to support companies as they look to their capital-raising journey and corporate advisory needs."
The $8.7 billion-asset Cross River Bank has been an active lender and supporter of fintechs. In December, Cross River announced a $150 million credit facility to support a flexible-rent product developed by Best Egg that permits renters to break their payment into smaller payments aligned more closely with their cash flows. Cross River is also working on a
Cross River has been serving fintech clients for nearly 15 years, providing a platform that offers both lending and payment services. While Cross River has aspired to be a one-stop shop for fintechs, it's a relative latecomer to investment banking. A number of established firms have groups dedicated to serving fintechs' capital needs, while at least one, San Francisco-based Financial Technology Partners, founded in 2002, focuses exclusively on the fintech space.
Steve McLaughlin, Financial Technology Partners' founder, CEO and managing partner, wrote Monday in an email that he was well acquainted with Gade and Cross River, which has been a "super happy client" of FTP in the past. McLaughlin is less familiar with Cross River's new investment banking foray, though he added the fintech space "has room for plenty of bankers."
Monday's investment banking announcement comes approximately a year after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Cross River was also included among a group of prolific Paycheck Protection Program lenders the Small Business Administration
Even with the enhanced regulatory scrutiny, Gade remains committed to Cross River's business model. Indeed, at an industry event in October, Gade predicted 2024 would be a banner year for fintechs.
The move into investment banking "leverages our unique position in the industry with extensive connectivity, differentiated insights and full-service capabilities," Cross River's spokesperson wrote.
