Cantor Fitzgerald, L.P. is an American

financial services Financial services are service (economics), economic services tied to finance provided by financial institutions. Financial services encompass a broad range of tertiary sector of the economy, service sector activities, especially as concerns finan ...

firm that was founded in 1945. It specializes in institutional equity, fixed-income sales and trading, and serving the middle market with

investment banking Investment banking is an advisory-based financial service for institutional investors, corporations, governments, and similar clients. Traditionally associated with corporate finance, such a bank might assist in raising financial capital by und ...

services,

prime brokerage Prime brokerage is the generic term for a bundled package of services offered by investment banks, wealth management firms, and securities dealers to hedge funds which need the ability to borrow securities and cash in order to be able to inves ...

, and

commercial real estate Commercial property, also called commercial real estate, investment property or income property, is real estate (buildings or land) intended to generate a profit, either from capital gains or rental income. Commercial property includes office bu ...

financing. It is also active in new businesses, including advisory and asset management services, gaming technology, and

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) refers to commercial activities including the electronic buying or selling products and services which are conducted on online platforms or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile co ...

. It has more than 5,000 institutional clients. Cantor Fitzgerald is one of 24

primary dealer A primary dealer is a firm that buys government securities directly from a government, with the intention of reselling them to others, thus acting as a market maker of government securities. The government may regulate the behaviour and number of i ...

s that are authorized to trade US government securities with the

Federal Reserve Bank of New York The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is one of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks of the United States. It is responsible for the Second District of the Federal Reserve System, which encompasses the New York (state), State of New York, the 12 norther ...

. Cantor Fitzgerald's 1,600 employees work in more than 30 locations, including financial centers in the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, Asia-Pacific, and the

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. Together with its affiliates, Cantor Fitzgerald operates in more than 60 offices in 20 countries and has more than 12,500 employees. Before 2001, the company's headquarters were located between the 101st and 105th floors of the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City, just above the impact site of

American Airlines Flight 11 American Airlines Flight 11 was a domestic Airline, passenger flight that was hijacked by five al-Qaeda terrorists on the morning of September 11, 2001, as part of the September 11 attacks. The hijacked airliner was deliberately crashed into ...

during the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

. 658 Cantor Fitzgerald employees who were present that day were killed, representing the largest loss of life among any single organization in the attacks.

Early history

Cantor Fitzgerald was formed in 1945 by Bernard Gerald Cantor and John Fitzgerald as an investment bank and brokerage business. In 1965, Cantor Fitzgerald began "large block" sales/trading of equities for institutional customers. It became the world's first electronic marketplace for US government securities in 1972, and in 1983 it was the first to offer worldwide screen brokerage services in US government securities, becoming in time the market's premier government securities dealer. It also became known for In 1991,

Howard Lutnick Howard William Lutnick (born July 14, 1961) is an American businessman, philanthropist, and government official who has served as the 41st United States Secretary of Commerce, United States secretary of commerce since February 2025. In 1983, Lu ...

was named president and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald; he became chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald, L.P., in 1996.

September 11 attacks

Cantor Fitzgerald's corporate headquarters and New York City office,office locations
" Cantor Fitzgerald. March 4, 2000. Retrieved on October 4, 2009. on the 101st to the 105th floors of 1 World Trade Center in

Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan, also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York City, is the southernmost part of the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is History of New York City, the historical birthplace o ...

(2 to 6 floors above the impact zone of

), were destroyed during the

. At 8:46:46 a.m., eighteen seconds after the plane struck the tower, a

Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered in Lower Manhattan in New York City, with regional headquarters in many internationa ...

server issued an alert saying that its trading system had gone offline because it could not connect with the server. Since all stairwells leading past the impact zone were destroyed by the initial crash or blocked with smoke, fire, or debris, every employee who reported for work that morning was killed in the attacks; 658 of its 960 New York employees were killed or missing, or 68.5% of its total workforce, which was considerably more than any of the other World Trade Center tenants, the

New York City Police Department The City of New York Police Department, also referred to as New York City Police Department (NYPD), is the primary law enforcement agency within New York City. Established on May 23, 1845, the NYPD is the largest, and one of the oldest, munic ...

, the Port Authority Police Department, the

New York City Fire Department The New York City Fire Department, officially the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) is the full-service fire department of New York City, serving all Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs. The FDNY is responsible for providing Fi ...

, or the

Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, ...

. Forty-six contractors, food service workers, and visitors in the Cantor Fitzgerald offices at the time were also killed. CEO Howard Lutnick was not present that day, but his younger brother, Gary, was among those killed. Lutnick vowed to keep the company alive, and the company was able to bring its trading markets back online within a week. On September 19, Cantor Fitzgerald made a pledge to distribute 25% of the firm's profits for the next five years (that would otherwise have been distributed to its partners), and committed to paying for ten years of health care for the benefit of the families of its 658 former Cantor Fitzgerald, eSpeed, and TradeSpark employees. In 2006, the company had completed its promise, having paid a total of $180 million (and an additional $17 million from a relief fund run by Lutnick's sister, Edie). Until the attacks, Cantor had handled about a quarter of the daily transactions in the multi-trillion dollar

treasury security United States Treasury securities, also called Treasuries or Treasurys, are government debt instruments issued by the United States Department of the Treasury to finance government spending as a supplement to taxation. Since 2012, the U.S. ...

market. Cantor Fitzgerald subsequently rebuilt its infrastructure, partly through the efforts of its London office, and relocated its headquarters to

Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan, serving as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Building, the ...

. The company's effort to regain its footing was the subject of Tom Barbash's 2003 book ''On Top of the World: Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick, and 9/11: A Story of Loss and Renewal'' as well as a 2012 documentary, ''Out of the Clear Blue Sky''. On September 2, 2004, Cantor and other organizations filed a

civil lawsuit A lawsuit is a proceeding by one or more parties (the plaintiff or claimant) against one or more parties (the defendant) in a civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. T ...

against

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

for allegedly providing money to the hijackers and

al-Qaeda , image = Flag of Jihad.svg , caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions , founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden , leaders = {{Plainlist, * Osama bin Lad ...

. It was later joined in the suit by the

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, (PANYNJ; stylized, in logo since 2020, as Port Authority NY NJ) is a joint venture between the U.S. states of New York (state), New York and New Jersey, established in 1921 through an interstate c ...

. Most of the claims against Saudi Arabia were dismissed on January 18, 2005. In December 2013, Cantor Fitzgerald settled its lawsuit against

American Airlines American Airlines, Inc. is a major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, and is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the ...

for $135 million. Cantor Fitzgerald had been suing for loss of property and interruption of business by alleging the airline to have been negligent by allowing hijackers to board Flight 11.

Recent history

In 2003, the firm launched its fixed-income sales and trading group. Three years later, the

Federal Reserve The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a series of ...

added Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. to its list of

primary dealers A primary dealer is a firm that buys government securities directly from a government, with the intention of reselling them to others, thus acting as a market maker of government securities. The government may regulate the behaviour and number of i ...

. The firm later launched Cantor Prime Services in 2009. It was meant to be a provider of multi-asset, perimeter brokerage prime brokerage platforms to exploit its clearing, financing, and execution capabilities. A year after, Cantor Fitzgerald began building its real estate business with the launch of CCRE. Cantor's affiliate, BGC Partners, expanded into commercial real estate services in 2011 by its purchase of

Newmark Knight Frank Newmark Group Inc. is a global commercial real estate advisory and services firm headquartered in New York City. It operates as ''Newmark'', and is listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol "NMRK". The company’s services incl ...

and the assets of Grubb & Ellis, to form Newmark Grubb Knight Frank. On December 5, 2014, two Cantor Fitzgerald analysts were said to be in the top 25 analysts on TipRanks. Cantor Fitzgerald has a prolific

special-purpose acquisition company A special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC; ), also known as a blank check company or a blind-pool stock offering, is a shell corporation listed on a stock exchange with the purpose of acquiring (or merging with) a private company, thus taking ...

underwriting practice, having led all banks in SPAC underwriting activity in both 2018 and 2019. In March 2016, Sage Kelly, formerly of Jefferies & Co., joined the firm as senior managing director and head of its investment-banking division.

Philanthropy

Former chairman and CEO Howard Lutnick's sister Edie wrote ''An Unbroken Bond: The Untold Story of How the 658 Cantor Fitzgerald Families Faced the Tragedy of 9/11 and Beyond''. All proceeds from the book's sale benefit the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund and the charities it assists. The Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund provided $10 million to families affected by

Hurricane Sandy Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as Superstorm Sandy) was an extremely large and devastating tropical cyclone which ravaged the Caribbean and the coastal Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States in late ...

. Howard Lutnick and the Relief Fund "adopted" 19 elementary schools in impacted areas by distributing $1,000 prepaid

debit card A debit card, also known as a check card or bank card, is a payment card that can be used in place of cash to make purchases. The card usually consists of the bank's name, a card number, the cardholder's name, and an expiration date, on either ...

s to each family from the schools. A total of $10 million in funds was given to families affected by the storm. Two days after the

2013 Moore tornado The 2013 Moore tornado was a large and extremely violent EF5 tornado that ravaged Moore, Oklahoma, and adjacent areas on the afternoon of May 20, 2013, with peak winds estimated at , killing 24 people (plus two indirect fatalities) and injur ...

struck

Moore, Oklahoma Moore is a city in Cleveland County, Oklahoma, United States, and is part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. The population was 62,793 at the 2020 census, making Moore the seventh-largest city in the state of Oklahoma. Located between Okl ...

, killing 24 people and injuring hundreds, Lutnick pledged to donate $2 million to families affected by the tornado. The donation was given to families in the form of $1,000 debit cards. Each year, on September 11, Cantor Fitzgerald and its affiliate, BGC Partners, donate 100% of their revenue to charitable causes on their annual Charity Day, which was initially established to raise money to assist the families of the Cantor employees who died in the World Trade Center attacks. Since its inception, Charity Day has raised $192 million for charities globally.

Subsidiaries and affiliates

The firm has many subsidiaries and affiliates, including: * BGC Partners, named after fixed-income trading innovator and founder B. Gerald Cantor, is a global brokerage company that services the wholesale financial markets and commercial real estate marketplace in New York, London, and other financial centers. BGC Partners includes Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, the fourth-largest real estate service provider in the US. * Cantor Ventures is the company's corporate venture capital and enterprise development arm. Led by Henrique De Castro, the group's current investments include delivery.com, Ritani, TopLine Game Labs, AdFin, Lucera, NewsWhip, and XIX Entertainment. * Hollywood Stock Exchange, founded in 1996, is the world's virtual entertainment stock market. * TopLine Game Labs is a technology company to create short-duration fantasy sports and entertainment-based social gaming. Headquartered in Los Angeles, TopLine Game Labs was, in 2013, building a platform-agnostic architecture to power game experiences for sports.

Senior management

List of chairpersons

# Bernie Cantor (1945–1996) #

(1996–2025) # Brandon Lutnick (2025–present)

List of CEOs

# Bernie Cantor (1945–1991) #

(1991–2025) # Pascal Bandelier, Sage Kelly, and Christian Wall (co-CEOs) (since February 2025)

List of presidents

# Anshu Jain (2017–2022)

References

External links

*
Cantor Families Memorial

Cantor Relief Fund
*
On Top of the World: Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick, and 9/11: A Story of Loss and Renewal
' ()

''The New York Times'', September 17, 2002 {{Authority control 1945 establishments in New York (state) American companies established in 1945 Banks based in New York City Banks established in 1945 Financial derivative trading companies Investment banks in the United States Primary dealers September 11 attacks