Jefferies history

In addition to the third market niche, Jefferies pioneered use of the split commission, or "give up," in 1964.

By 1965, Jefferies had joined the Detroit, Midwest, Boston, and Philadelphia stock exchanges.

In 1967, the company joined the New York stock exchange (NYSE), opening a five-person office in New York.

In 1969, a study of the structure of securities markets was conducted by former Federal Reserve Board Chairman William McChesney Martin, who recommended the elimination of the third market and the barring of institutions trading in the market from Big Board membership.

Texas became a new site of expansion in 1971, with an office opened in Dallas.

Jefferies rejoined the exchange in March 1973.

In 1977, Jefferies had expanded with offices in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Dallas, Boston and Atlanta.

In 1981, Jefferies achieved its largest transaction ever, a buyback called "the Mighty Mouse of block trading" by Fortune magazine.

In December 1982, the company began to take advantage of trading halts.

By 1984, according to Business Week, Jefferies was among the ten most profitable publicly held brokerages.

To compensate for a dip in business, Baxter cut costs by 15 percent through back office automation, and he limited capital use to $50 million (from $300 million in 1985). What could have been an institutional nightmare was salvaged by Baxter's shrewd managerial techniques.

In 1986, Baxter became president and chief operating officer, returning to New York to manage the company.

The company added a wholly owned subsidiary (Investment Technology Group) in 1987 to run POSIT. Jefferies' fourth market activities resulted in a new role for the firm's account executives, who were now referred to as JeffCAT, or Jefferies Computer Assisted Traders.

Since 1989, Jefferies had bought back almost three million shares of its own stock, including Boyd Jefferies' remaining 800,000 shares.

In 1990, Jefferies derived approximately 80 percent of its revenues from equity block trades.

By 1992, junk bonds became the company's second most profitable sector.

Beginning in 1993, Baxter sought to maximize earnings per share by integrating the different departments of the firm's diversification effort (business lines, fixed income, and electronic trading). Baxter also continued to explore new industries.

In 1994, the company built a new analytical trading division to trade equities and futures.

In 1998, Jefferies launched a series of intranet-based data marts to support its transition to investment banking and entry into the corporate, finance, and research markets.

In January 2000 Frank Baxter stepped down as president of Jefferies and relinquished the CEO title later that year.

In January 2001, Handler became chairman and CEO; and John Shaw became sole president and COO. Handler and Shaw set out to build a fully integrated investment bank and to develop a merchant bank.

Beginning in 2008, Jefferies took advantage of the dislocation created during the credit crisis to enter several new business segments, including mortgage-backed securities and municipal bonds.

In June 2009 the firm hired more than 35 healthcare-focused investment banking professionals from UBS. UBS's health care group, then led by Benjamin Lorello, was a major moneymaker for the firm.

On April 16, 2012, Jefferies CEO Richard Handler and Chairman of the Executive Committee Brian Friedman formed the Jefferies Global Senior Advisory Board which includes James D Robinson III, Lord Hollick, Michael Goldstein, Bernard Bourigeaud, Dennis Archer, Gilles Pélisson and Sir David Reid.

In September 2014, Jefferies announced a $500 million deal with CircleBack Lending, which was the largest of its kind at the time.

In June 2015, the first securitization from this deal took place, totaling $106 million.

On December 9, 2019, the United States Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) ordered Jefferies to pay close to $4 million, for their inappropriate handling of American depositary receipts (ADR).