Union Securities
| Acquired | |
| Industry | Investment bank |
| Fate | Merged with Eastman, Dillon & Co., ultimately part of UBS AG |
| Predecessor | J. & W. Seligman & Co. |
| Founded | 1938 (spin-out) |
| Headquarters | New York City, United States |
Union Securities Corporation was an independent investment banking firm in existence from 1938 through its acquisition in 1956 although the name would survive through 1972. Union Securities was created in 1938 as a spinoff of the investment banking operations of J. & W. Seligman & Co. as a result of the Glass-Steagall Act.
In 1956, the firm merged with Eastman Dillon & Co. The Union Securities name remained until 1972, when what was then known as Eastman Dillon Union Securities merged with Blyth & Co. to form Blyth, Eastman Dillon & Co. That firm was later acquired by Paine Webber, which is today a part of UBS
The firm's predecessor, J. & W. Seligman & Co. was founded as an importing house by Joseph Seligman and his brothers in New York in 1846. After the American Civil War ended, the eight Seligman brothers decided to go into the banking business and a year later, Jesse Seligman went to Frankfurt, Germany, to open a bank, where they were the first American banking firm to sell United States Government bonds in Europe. In the post-Civil War robber baron era, the firm invested heavily in railroad finance, in particular acting as broker of transactions engineered by Jay Gould. Later, in 1876, the Seligmans joined forces with the Vanderbilt family to create public utilities in New York.
In the early 20th century the firm's predecessor backed the construction of the Panama Canal. In this period, J.& W. Seligman & Co. Inc. underwrote the securities of a variety of companies, participating in stock and bond issues in the railroad and steel and wire industries, investments in Russia and Peru, the formation of the Standard Oil Company, and shipbuilding, bridges, bicycles, mining, and a variety of other industries. In 1910 William C. Durant of the fledgling General Motors Corporation gave control of his company's board to the Seligmans and Lee, Higginson & Co. in return for underwriting $15 million worth of corporate notes.
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