Alex. Brown & Sons was the first investment bank in the United States, founded by Alexander Brown in 1800 in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...

. The firm was acquired by Bankers Trust in 1997 to form

BT Alex. Brown Alex. Brown & Sons was the first investment bank in the United States, founded by Alexander Brown in 1800 in Baltimore, Maryland. The firm was acquired by Bankers Trust in 1997 to form BT Alex. Brown, and then integrated into Deutsche Bank in 1 ...

, and then integrated into Deutsche Bank in 1999 following Deutsche's acquisition of BT. In 2016, Raymond James acquired Deutsche's U.S. private client services unit, operating under the Alex. Brown brand.

History

Founding and early history

Alexander Brown Alexander Brown may refer to: Sports * Alexander Brown (cricketer) (born 1967), English cricketer *Sandy Brown (footballer, born 1877) (Alexander Brown, 1877–1944), Scottish footballer *Sandy Brown (footballer, born 1939) (Alexander Dewar Brown ...

(1764–1834), an Irish linen merchant, emigrated in 1800 from Broughshane, near

Ballymena Ballymena ( ; from ga, an Baile Meánach , meaning 'the middle townland') is a town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is part of the Borough of Mid and East Antrim. The town is built on land given to the Adair family by King Charles I i ...

, in Ulster to the United States, settling in Baltimore, Maryland, where he established the first

investment banking Investment banking pertains to certain activities of a financial services company or a corporate division that consist in advisory-based financial transactions on behalf of individuals, corporations, and governments. Traditionally associated wit ...

firm in the U.S. In 1808, the company organized the first initial public offering in the U.S., that of the Baltimore Water Company. AlexBrownBuilding

In 1810, Alexander Brown was joined in business by his sons, William, George, John, and James, and the firm was named Alex. Brown and Sons, Inc. By the 1820s, Alexander Brown had expanded his business interests into sterling exchange and international trade, including tobacco and cotton. Brown's sons eventually started related businesses in various locations, beginning with William. William founded William Brown and Company in Liverpool, England, which later became Brown, Shipley & Co. In 1818, John and James started Brown Bros. & Co. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. James subsequently opened a branch in New York City in 1825, a predecessor to Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. George remained at the firm's Baltimore headquarters, where he took a leading role in the founding of the

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

in 1827. Upon Alexander Brown's death in 1834, George became the head of Alex. Brown and Sons, which proclaimed itself "America's foremost international banking enterprise in the nineteenth century." Following the

panic of 1837 The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis in the United States that touched off a major depression, which lasted until the mid-1840s. Profits, prices, and wages went down, westward expansion was stalled, unemployment went up, and pessimism abound ...

, Alex. Brown and Sons withdrew from most of its lending business and chose to focus on currency exchange, investment banking, and international trade. Some historical records of Alex Brown & Sons are housed in the manuscript collections at New-York Historical Society.

Acquisition by Bankers Trust, Integration into Deutsche Bank, and Acquisition by Raymond James

Alex. Brown & Sons, at the time the oldest privately held brokerage in the U.S., was acquired by Bankers Trust in 1997 for between $1.7 billion and $2.5 billion in stock to form BT Alex. Brown. Less than two years later, in June 1999, Deutsche Bank bought Bankers Trust, along with Alex. Brown & Sons, for more than $10 billion. The Alex Brown name initially survived as Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown, the brokerage services division of Deutsche Bank Securities. September 2016 marked a new chapter for Alex Brown Wealth Management when it was officially sold to Raymond James. The company provides a range of advisory, brokerage, research, and investment services to

high-net-worth individual High-net-worth individual (HNWI) is a term used by some segments of the financial services industry to designate persons whose investible wealth (assets such as stocks and bonds) exceeds a given amount. Typically, these individuals are defined ...

investors in the US. It performs research on more than 2,500 stocks, as well as corporate bonds and foreign securities.

Noted alumni

Alex. Brown's chairman in 1998 was A. B. "Buzzy" Krongard, who was appointed Executive Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 2001.

References

External links