Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. continues its transformation from a big bond brokerage to a full-service investment bank.  Over the past year, the privately held firm increased its equity division headcount by 20% - it now numbers about 400 traders and analysts globally - and could increase its staff by another 25%, or 100 people globally, according to CEO Shawn Matthews.

Matthews said the post-financial-crisis climate is creating opportunities for the firm to hire traders from bigger banks.  In January, he hired Jarred Kessler from Credit Suisse to take over the equity operations from Kenneth Savio, a two-decade trading veteran who had only been at Cantor for a little over one year.

In other moves, Cantor is expanding product lines, including a recently launched trading desk for ETF's.  The firm also is looking to expand its 2-year-old equities business overseas, nearing a deal to acquire a brokerage firm in Ireland.  Cantor is trying to re-create a style of business that disappeared over the years as the bulge-bracket Wall Street banks tightened their grip on stock trading by snapping up smaller brokerages.  Cantor apparently is following the business model of Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, a once independent investment bank known for its research that was acquired by Credit Suisse Group in 2000.

        With an Eye to Going Public.   Chairman and CEO Howard Lutnick has talked openly about bringing the company public in the next 2 years - i.e., Cantor Fitzgerald LP, the parent company of Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. and one of the largest shareholders of BGC Partners Inc., a publicly traded offshoot that specializes in handling transactions among banks.   [Dow Jones Newswires, 3/25]