City Securities.

• Author: Kaelble, Steve
• Position: Brief Article

At 75, Indiana investment firm stays independent.

In the world of financial services, it's getting tougher and tougher to find players with solid roots still planted in Indiana. Just as native Hoosier banks have been absorbed by giants from elsewhere, large Indiana-based investment firms have taken outsiders' names.

But City Securities Corp., an Indianapolis investment-banking firm, this year celebrated 75 years as an independent and locally owned player and named a new CEO who vows that the firm will stay independent. Mike Bosway maintains that the reasons for staying local are as valid as ever.

"We don't feel like there's a need to go out and find a merger partner," he says. "We're also just plain bullheaded. We feel there's a place for an Indiana company like ours, a place for local money management."

Not that there haven't been chances for City Securities to merge its way into a bigger operation. Most significant were the talks the firm held about four years ago with McDonald & Co., a respected regional player in the investment-banking business that more recently was an acquisition target itself, becoming a part of Key Corp. "When we made the decision to remain independent, we made a significant investment in technology," Bosway says. "As long as you have first-rate technology, that allows you to remain independent."

City Securities began as a division of The...