Cantor Fitzgerald

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Cantor Fitzgerald L.P. is a global financial services firm specializing in bond trading, as well as investment banking, asset management, market data and brokerage services. It was founded in 1945 by Bernie Cantor and John Fitzgerald as a limited partnership, which it remains today.

The firm created its subsidiary eSpeed, an electronic trading network, and brought it public in 1999. eSpeed is a marketplace technology provider for the financial capital markets of the world, and has offices in North America, Europe and Asia. Thousands of traders at hundreds of global financial institutions conduct over $45 trillion of transactions annually in eSpeed's multiple buyer/multiple seller markets.

On October 1, 2004, it spun off its inter-dealer voice brokerage business into a separate partnership BGC Partners, named for Cantor founder Bernard Gerald Cantor, in order to refocus their business on institutional sales and trading.

CO2e.com, a wholly owned Cantor subsidiary, was created to serve as the pre-eminent business-to-business resource for companies to understand, mitigate and manage the transition to a greenhouse gas constrained future.

Cantor Environmental Brokerage is the oldest environmental brokerage in the World. Its mission is to provide a marketplace where industry, government, and the public can take full advantage of environmental and renewable energy credit trading opportunities.

Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. is one of 23 primary dealers who are permitted to trade U.S. Government Securities directly with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Cantor Fitzgerald Telecom Services, LLC is a leading provider of secure wireless and wireline telecommunications services for the financial and entertainment marketplaces delivering mission critical information and services that support the global trading infrastructure for Cantor Fitzgerald, L.P., its subsidiaries, and its clients.

The Cantor Fitzgerald Spectrum & Tower Exchange & Marketplace is a web-based service dedicated to making the offering, finding, pricing and executing transfer of wireless spectrum rights, tower assets and tower/rooftop space as efficient, neutral and transparent as possible.

Cantor Gaming is a leader in mobile gaming, having been instrumental in the passage of mobile gaming legislation in Nevada. The firm and several of its key executives were granted the first-ever license as a manufacturer, distributor and operator of mobile gaming systems by the Nevada Gaming Commission.

Cantor Index Ltd provides financial spread betting service.

[edit] Allegations of Hazing, Racism, and Anti-gay Discrimination

In 1997, a newly-hired trading assistant Mark Anderson claimed to have suffered severe discrimination, physical, and verbal abuse for a period of 13 months.[1]

[edit] September 11 2001 Attacks

Cantor Fitzgerald's former New York office, on the 101st–105th floors of One World Trade Center, lost 658 employees, or about two-thirds of its workforce, in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack, considerably more than any other company, including the New York City Fire Department. The company was able to bring its trading markets back online within a week, and chairman and CEO Howard Lutnick, whose brother was among those killed in the attacks, vowed to keep the company viable.

On September 19, 2001, Cantor Fitzgerald made a pledge to distribute 25 percent of the firm's profits, and committed to paying for 10 years of healthcare, for the benefit of the families and loved ones of its 658 former Cantor Fitzgerald, eSpeed and TradeSpark employees (profits which would otherwise would have been distributed to the partners of Cantor Fitzgerald). In 2006 the company completed its promise having paid a total of $180 million, as well as $17 million from a relief fund run by Lutnick's sister, Edie.

Before the attacks, Cantor handled about one-quarter of the daily transactions in the multi-trillion dollar U.S. treasuries market. Cantor has since rebuilt its infrastructure and now has its headquarters in midtown Manhattan. The company's effort to regain its footing is the subject of a 2003 book titled On Top of the World: Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick, and 9/11: A Story of Loss and Renewal (ISBN 0-06-051030-7) by Tom Barbash. See also: One World Trade Center tenants

On September 2, 2004, Cantor Fitzgerald LP filed a $7 billion lawsuit against Saudi Arabia, al-Qaeda and more than 50 Middle Eastern banks and foundations.[2] The suit alleges racketeering and conspiracy by Saudi Arabia, foreign charities, banks and relief organizations in lending financial and other material support and substantial assistance to al-Qaeda, which is blamed for the attacks.