The Commonwealth of Independent States is hardly renowned as a hotbed of investment banking talent but Tbilisi-headquartered Galt & Taggart Securities is helping to change that perception. Since 2000, GTS has expanded beyond its home market in Georgia to encompass offices in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine as well. GTS chief executive Nick Piazza says that the firm’s key strength is the fact that it is owned by London Stock Exchange-listed Bank of Georgia, which numbers emerging market funds such as East Capital and Firebird Asset Management among its shareholders. "We pride ourselves on servicing Bank of Georgia shareholders’ needs in the region. Their faith in our reliability and market knowledge has helped us to weather this year’s tougher market conditions," Piazza says. He adds that as one of the few full-service investment banks in the CIS, GTS can offer international investors access to frontier markets that until recently had been bereft of world-class research and trading capabilities.