Pioneering Woman

By KIRI BLAKELEY  I  Forbes.com - August 8, 2005

Muriel Siebert is to Wall Street what Barbara Walters is to television news: a female pioneer in a traditionally male-dominated industry.

Siebert became the first woman member of the New York Stock Exchange back in 1967. In 1975, as soon as a new federal law abolished fixed broker commissions, and NYSE members were allowed to negotiate commissions, Siebert seized the opportunity by founding her own discount brokerage firm, $28 million (2004 sales) Siebert Financial (nasdaq: SIEB - news - people ), which she runs today.

The transition from researcher to Wall Street powerhouse was anything but easy. The stock exchange held up her membership for months while they demanded a letter from a bank committing to lending her $300,000 of the record $445,000 seat price. But no bank would give her a letter without proof that she would be admitted. She was turned down by nine of the first ten men she asked to sponsor her application. And when she appeared in a full-page Wall Street Journal ad cutting a hundred-dollar bill in half as a symbol of her discount philosophy, her long-time clearing house dropped her, and she was briefly threatened with Securities and Exchange Commission expulsion.

Siebert persevered, and her company became a huge success. But two years later came a higher calling. Democratic governor Hugh Carey picked Siebert (despite her Republican leanings) to become Superintendent of New York State's Banking Department, another first for a woman. What followed were perilous years for banks, whose failures became common across the country. Siebert imposed tough new protective measures in New York, and liked to remind people that the initials of her title, Superintendent of Banking, were S.O.B. No state bank failed during her tenure.

In 1982, she ran for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate. After losing the primary, but coming in second, she made the decision to return to her company and found it in shambles. She has since had to rebuild the company on almost every level.

In 2002, her book Changing the Rules: Adventures of a Wall Street Maverick was published. Here, she talks about what the future holds for her firm in this rapidly changing industry and reveals the new project she considers to be her soul's work.

What five words best describe you?

Feisty, humorous, driven, driven, understanding, pioneering.


What was the first job you had after college?

I'm a college drop-out with 18 honorary doctorates. I guess that makes up for no degree. My father was dying of cancer. I was going down to college and cutting classes and playing bridge. I was cutting classes at Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, which is where I come from. I was taking a combined business and accounting major and minor. My first real job was doing accounting on a part-time basis for four companies. I put an ad in the paper. I would go in once a month and balance their books.

What do you consider your greatest personal accomplishment and why?

I've introduced a school program for personal finance literacy. It's in the New York City public schools. The state of Virginia just voted to pass a law to teach it there. It will be tested in Palm Beach County. I brought the idea to New York City in 1998. [The program is] getting into [the schools] one by one. They just tested 8,000 people who took the program in the Bronx last year and 70% passed. The program is supposed to go into the new [high school] course in economics. When I was the superintendent of banks, we regulated the check cashers and the license lenders. I learned that the people who could afford it the least paid the most, because they were using check cashers. They didn't know how to use a checking account. They would get a credit card and they don't know that by paying the minimum balance, they'll be paying for last night's pizza dinner for 15 to 20 years. These kids get a card, they pay the minimum, they max it out. They get another one, pay the minimum, max it out. And they're basically bankrupt at 25. They're stuck with this debt. And they feel they have played according to the rules of the system. They paid the minimum. But no one has taught them. We send them into the real world. And now you've got so many complex financial instruments coming out, with the interest-payment-only mortgages. Some of them you're not even paying interest-only! And nobody has taught them. Nobody is telling them, "Yeah, we'll consolidate your credit card bills, but we're putting a mortgage on your house, lady."

What was the defining moment of your professional life and why?

Making the New York Stock Exchange co-ed. Dec. 28, 1967. I was the first woman. Tied with that is becoming the first woman superintendent of banks for the state [of New York]. This was a little before the woman's movement. When the woman's movement came along, they looked at me. The woman's movement was basically 1970, and I made the stock exchange co-ed in 1967. The idea came from a client. I wanted to be paid equally, period. I couldn't go to any large firm and get credit on the business that I was doing, my research. I started as a trainee in research. I was given airlines, aerospace, radio, television and motion pictures. I got my first order when I wasn't registered. Madison Fund called me. I was at Shields [a broker dealer] then, and Madison said, "We made money on a report you wrote. We owe you an order." I went to the partner in charge of research, and I said, "Mr. Crockett, Madison said to me they owe me an order, shall I wait till I get registered?" He practically shoved me out of his office. He couldn't pay me a commission. He said, "Go up there and make the order. We'll make it up to you at Christmas." But that was half of what I would have made as a broker. [Getting registered] was an accomplishment in those days. That made world press.

What was the greatest challenge you faced in your personal life and why?

Trying to find enough time to have personal time. I find I'm interested in so many things. I'm on a couple of boards that I believe in, I have my school program that I call "my soul," I'm on the board of ARF (Animal Rescue Fund)--I love animals--I'm board of Guild Hall in East Hampton, I am on the counsel for judicial nomination as appointed by [Chief Judge of the State of New York] Judith Kaye .


What was the greatest challenge you faced in your professional life and why?

I'm in an industry that is changing drastically. In my discount brokerage business, I've got some accounts that have been with us 25 years. We're known because we have superb customer service. My challenge is to see how I can build on that. Should I be trying to merge or buy a money manager? Because we have billions of dollars of assets. We're responsible for the integrity of our customers' money. How can I use their faith and offer them services, and what will be the new things coming around? I was smart and lucky enough to go discount on the first day brokers were allowed to discount commissions. I was on the front page of the Wall Street Journal the second day, May 1, 1975. I was down 40% for our institutional accounts. People weren't so happy with me. I was considered to be a vulture at the time. Now it's a business. I'm looking for: 'How will these new developments affect our business, and is there something I can do to create something?'


What is your favorite activity outside of the office and why?

I have a weekend place in Southampton, and I love to just go out and walk the beach.


If you could excel at one sport, which would it be and why?

It would be tennis. Because I think that game challenges your mind. You have to run, think, move fast. Second would be golf. At times golf is too slow for me.

What would you most like to be remembered for?

That I got financial literacy introduced on a national basis. That is my personal goal. I'm working with a hospital about adapting my program for people who are working there. People who have responsible jobs but don't have a lot of money. I think I could take an idea like that, I could move it around. Take it to corporations to use for human resources. I could offer it to older people. When you can do something like that, it's a good feeling. Wouldn't it be nice to have that as a legacy? I feel great when I sit in a restaurant and a couple of ladies come up to me and say, "I'm at Goldman Sachs (nyse: GS - news - people ), I'm at Merrill Lynch (nyse: MER - news - people ), and you've been my role model." But it's not about that anymore.