Vikram Rai lands at Wells Fargo

Former longtime Citi head of municipal strategy Vikram Rai has landed at Wells Fargo, where will join the municipal credit strategy team as senior strategist.

The firm confirmed that Rai joined Wells on Monday. He will report to Matt Rosenberg and Chris Lee, co-heads of sales and trading.

The move comes after Rai was let go by Citi in June. He had worked there for nearly 16 years, mostly recently as a managing director of fixed-income.

Rai is a prominent and well-respected voice in the municipal market who hosted popular weekly client calls with detailed reports that highlighted hot button issues facing the market.

In 2022, Wells Fargo jumped to sixth from eighth year-over-year, among top managing underwriters of municipal bonds, underwriting $20.437 billion for a 5.7% market share.

So far this year, Wells Fargo ranks seventh in the managing underwriter league tables. It has underwritten almost $15 billion of deals in 118 issues, a 5.8% market share.

Citi fell to fourth place in 2022 from second the previous year, accounting for $27.177 billion and a market share of 7.6%. The firm saw its par amount decrease from $44.761 billion and its market share from 9.8% in 2021.

Rai has been regularly ranked in the top three in the Institutional Investor and the Greenwich client surveys.

Previously, he was in Citi’s U.S. rates trading group.

Prior to joining Citi in 2007, he worked in the private equity division of Old Lane LLP, a hedge fund.

Rai holds an MBA in finance and economics from the University of Chicago and is a CFA charter holder.