Thread by @richhend

Larry Fink and @BlackRock are again in the spotlight. How did they become so powerful? Here’s a #fintwit thread with stories if you’ve time on your hands… (1/10)

BlackRock will oversee Fed programs stewarding billions of dollars, and will likely buy its own #ETFs, causing a potential conflict of interest
ft.com/content/08b897… w/ @robinwigg (2/10)

This mirrors its role in 2008 when the Fed hired it in part because of its risk platform, Aladdin, now used by rival fund managers, insurers and big groups like Apple and Alphabet
ft.com/content/5ba6f4… w/ @OwenWalker0 (3/10)

Fink is “fabulously well-connected” writes our very own @GillianTett and the Fed hire reflects the need for a rapid central bank response
ft.com/content/f3ea07… (4/10)

He began as a trainee at First Boston in 1976, rising to run the mortgage department where he pioneered mortgage backed securities, making hundreds of millions of dollars for the bank
fortune.com/2014/07/07/bla… by #CarolLoomis (5/10)

He was locked in a battle to out-sell Lew Ranieri, of Salomon Brothers, and built a stake on First Boston’s balance sheet that lost $100m after a rate cut in 1986, and left shortly after ft.com/content/5ba6f4… (6/10)

He began BlackRock in 1988 initially as @blackstone Asset Management, under Steven Schwarzman, before breaking away
vanityfair.com/news/2010/04/f… by @AndrewsSuzanna (7/10)

BlackRock grew as a bond shop until its first mega-deal, merging with Merrill Lynch Investment Management in 2006, expanding into equities (8/10)

In 2009, at the apogee of the crisis, Fink agreed to buy Barclays Global Investors, then the largest fund manager, acquiring the iShares ETF unit that has fueled BlackRock’s growth in the last decade
ft.com/content/48e703… by @AttractaMooney @petersmithesq (9/10)

Fink may be ready for another crisis-era deal, hinting as much in a letter to shareholders last week and offering an oblique nod to the booming field of alternative investments, like private equity
ft.com/content/2942eb… w/ @EricGPlatt (10/10)