Career muni analyst and advisor Patrick Early has joined the Treasury Department’s Office of State and Local Finance as a senior policy analyst at a time when the details of major legislative proposals, such as the Federal Data Transparency Act and the Basel III Endgame proposal are set to impact the municipal market.
The move was confirmed by Early’s LinkedIn, which also states that Early retired from his most recent role as managing director and chief municipal analyst at Wells Fargo Advisors in 2022, a role he held since 2009.
While there, Early managed the retail- focused municipal research efforts, as well as publishing on credit-specific and situational concerns. He also interacted with clients and was also a regular financial advisor contact.
Before that Early served as director at Assured Guaranty from 2005 to 2009, in charge of fixed income investor relations and also served as a municipal credit officer responsible for approving municipal exposure.
He began his career at A.G. Edwards, where he served from 1989 to 2005, and in that time, moved his way up to vice president and manager of municipal research. Early also holds Series 53, 24, 7 and 66 licenses.
Emily Brock, director of the federal liaison center at the Government Finance Officers Association said she hasn’t heard directly from Early nor Melissa Moye, director of Treasury’s OSLF concerning the move but noted that the OSLF team is definitely involved in discussion concerning FDTA and Basel III Endgame proposals.
“[OSLF] are also probably paying a lot of attention to the SEC/MSRB stuff happening at the moment,” Brock said.
“The fact that they are adding his knowledge to the OSLF sends a message that Treasury understands the importance of the muni market to state and local governments’ overall fiscal health and flexibility, which is important by itself, and then there’s also the upside of what he can do once he’s there,” said Michael Stanton, head of strategy and communications at Build America Mutual. “He’s devoted his career to understanding what retail investors want from their municipal bond portfolios, and he can put that experience to work in making the market a more efficient and effective tool for financing infrastructure.”
Treasury did not immediately respond to requests for comment for this story.