The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico: The next chapter
In this issue of Insights, the authors provide context around efforts by the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to pursue a plan for long-term fiscal stability and...
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Bradley Wendt returned to CRA in 2020 after serving a two-year appointment as Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Mr. Wendt led U.S. Treasury’s fiscal engagement with Puerto Rico leadership on all issues central to the island’s insolvency and economic recovery. Additionally, he interfaced with multiple federal agencies designing the fiscal controls required for disbursing $40 billion disaster recovery funds and $10 billion of energy grid restoration.
Before his appointment to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Mr. Wendt was a senior consultant to CRA, specializing in fixed income capital markets, securities pricing, best execution practices, regulatory compliance, and municipal securities. His engagements while affiliated with CRA included: FINRA arbitration for breach of fiduciary duty, unjust enrichment, unauthorized trading; Government of Puerto Rico securitized bond issuances; sovereign government’s “ability-to-pay” $655 million federal court judgment; custom and practice for financial markets and bond underwritings; domestic government’s “ability-to-pay” multi-billion dollar accrued compensation; and high yield bond pricing for a sovereign tax dispute.
Prior to joining CRA, Mr. Wendt created the municipal capital markets group at Goldman Sachs. For a decade, he led the group’s structuring, origination, trading, securitization, hedging, pricing, product development, and end-of-day portfolio valuations. He also managed suitability and markup procedures for all municipal derivative products, oversaw municipal capital markets proprietary trading, and ran Goldman Sachs’ $40 billion short-term municipal remarketing program.
While a Goldman Sachs’ Managing Director, Mr. Wendt co-founded the leading trading platform for retail fixed income (currently dba Tradeweb Direct). Upon retiring from Goldman Sachs, Mr. Wendt became the trading platform’s president and the broker-dealer’s senior regulatory and credit officer. At the time of sale to private equity for $320 million, the company electronically interfaced with over 100,000 registered representatives at 50 securities firms.
As a capital markets banker and group head, Mr. Wendt participated in the sale of $100 billion of securities, directly engaging: institutional investors, registered representatives, trading desks, law firms, and investment banks. He was honored by Institutional Investor with its Deal of the Year award for innovative capital markets financings.