The Regional Bond Dealers Association (RBDA) is the predominant U.S. trade association

Trade association

A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association or sector association, is an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry...

 focused on representing regional and middle-market securities firms active in the fixed income markets

Bond market

The bond market is a financial market where participants can issue new debt, known as the primary market, or buy and sell debt securities, known as the Secondary market, usually in the form of bonds. The primary goal of the bond market is to provide a mechanism for long term funding of public and...

. The RBDA is headquartered in Washington, DC, USA.

Formation

The RBDA was formed in March 2008 by 14 firms. The RBDA's stated mission is to "work to advocate public policies and market practices aimed at improving the market environment" and to "provide a forum for its members to discuss and debate issues of common interest."

Leadership and Members

The RBDA is led by a 15-member board of directors

Board of directors

A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...

. As of October 2008, board members include:

• Mark Medford (Chair
  Chair (official)
  The chairman is the highest officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office is typically elected or appointed by the members of the group. The chairman presides over meetings of the assembled group and conducts its business in an...
  
  ), Vining Sparks
• Kenneth Williams (Vice Chair), Stone & Youngberg LLC
• Silas Matthies (Treasurer
  Treasurer
  A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The adjective for a treasurer is normally "tresorial". The adjective "treasurial" normally means pertaining to a treasury, rather than the treasurer.-Government:...
  
  -Secretary), Wells Fargo Brokerage Services LLC
  Wells Fargo
  Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational diversified financial services company with operations around the world. Wells Fargo is the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by assets and the largest bank by market capitalization. Wells Fargo is the second largest bank in deposits, home...
  
  
• Miles Benickes, M.L. Stern & Co.
• Jeff Chapman, Fifth Third Securities
  Fifth Third Bank
  Fifth Third Bank is a U.S. regional banking corporation, headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio and is the principal subsidiary of holding company Fifth Third Bancorp ....
  
  
• Jay Hiniker, Cronin & Co., Inc.
• Dan Leland, Southwest Securities
• Michael Marz, First Southwest Company
• Mike Newhouse, Seattle-Northwest Securities Corp.
• Demetri Patikas, Duncan - Williams, Inc.
• Alan Polsky, Dougherty & Company LLC
• Marc Porter, G.X. Clarke & Co.
• Tom Ricketts, Incapital LLC
• Don Winton, Crews & Associates, Inc.

Executive

Senior management

Senior management, executive management, or management team is generally a team of individuals at the highest level of organizational management who have the day-to-day responsibilities of managing a company or corporation, they hold specific executive powers conferred onto them with and by...

 staff of the RBDA includes Chief Executive Officer Mike Nicholas.

In addition to firms represented on the board of directors, membership in the RBDA includes Coastal Securities, Inc., Comerica Securities

Comerica

Comerica Incorporated is a financial services company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, USA. It has retail banking operations in Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Texas; and select business operations in several other U.S...

, D.A. Davidson and Co., FTN Financial, Oppenheimer & Co.

Oppenheimer Holdings

Oppenheimer Holdings is an investment bank and full-service investment firm offering investment banking, financial advisory services, capital markets services, asset management, wealth management, and related products and services worldwide...

 and Raymond James & Associates

Raymond James

Raymond James Financial is a diversified financial services holding company whose subsidiaries engage primarily in investment and financial planning, in addition to investment banking and asset management...

. Associate members include Broadridge Financial, MarketAxess and TheMuniCenter.