Cantor Fitzgerald Executive Vice Chairman Kyle Lutnick & Chairman Brandon Lutnick Talk 9/11 Charity Day

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On September 11th, Cantor Fitzgerald lost 658 employees in the attacks on the World Trade Center. In the years since, the firm has turned that loss into a mission of giving back through the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund.

Bloomberg The Close co-host Romaine Bostick joins us now from Cantor's New York High Boarders with Chairman Brandon Lutnick and Executive Vice-Chairman Kyle Lutnick.

Romaine Bostick (0:33)

Thank you, Vani, indeed, and we talk about that tragedy on September 11th that affected Cantor Fitzgerald deeply. You were in the World Trade Center towers at the time, your employees right above the impact zone and in a few minutes we'll have a moment of silence to commemorate the falling of those towers.

Obviously, you weren't at Cantor Fitzgerald at the time, but both of you now are shepherding this company and more importantly, the legacy of remembering and building on what happened that day. What comes next after 25 years?

Brandon Lutnick (1:07)

After 25 years, we still remember, and I think that's what this day behind us is about. We're on the trading floor of Cantor Fitzgerald. What you see here is all of our employees waiving their day's pay to give back. We turn a really solemn day of remembrance for a really powerful day of service. We've been doing this every year since 9-11, and that's what it's all about. Fulfilling the promise our father made then, which was to take care of our 700 families we lost that day by giving 25% of our profits and paying for their health for five years, and paying for their health care over the next 10 years.

He made that promise and stuck to his word, and since then, we've pivoted the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund to take care of so many more. Last year on Charity Day, we raised a record $15 million and gave to over 180 organizations, and this year being the 25th anniversary, we're hoping to exceed that.

Romaine Bostick (1:57)

I do want to ask you just about this idea that we have a whole generation of people now that weren't alive at the time that 9-11 happened. A third of the US population was too young to see that firsthand. As you have new employees, younger employees coming into this company, what do you want them to know about, not so much what Cantor suffered that day, Kyle, but more importantly, what it's managed to build and rebuild in the 25 years since.

Kyle Lutnick (2:22)

So today, more than 100 million Americans were born after the day, which is about a third of the country. A lot of family members of those that were lost that work here today, and that was a promise that Brandon mentioned that we give, and we make sure we honor that promise going forward. And so this morning, we sent around a video footage from over the last 25 years to make sure that everyone understands what the point of Charity Day is. It's to make it so that it's a day of service, it's a day of giving back, it makes a difficult day a little bit easier to get through, and that's what we want people to know is America, New York rising from the ashes and coming together.

Romaine Bostick (2:59)

And we should point out, I mean, it's a solemn day, but there's a lot of energy in this room as the celebrities come through to contribute to that cause. We are on your trading floor here, so these people are actually at work as we speak, and it's been a busy day for Mark. It's quite frankly a busy year. Cantor Fitzgerald itself as a company is coming off a record 2025, and I'm kind of wondering Brandon, and maybe you can kind of share how 2026 here in September is stacking up to what you saw in 2025

Brandon Lutnick (3:26)

We're just hoping to keep that momentum going. Cantor Fitzgerald is really made up of three companies. Cantor, the private investment bank, which is where we are today, and BGC is the world's largest wholesale exchange, and Newmark, which is a leading real estate commercial brokers firm. Those three companies have been performing extraordinarily well.

Because we are a private partnership, we are able to be nimble and entrepreneurial, and with Cantor, for example, we were the first mover in the digital asset space, and we are just really hoping to keep that momentum going with everything in emerging technologies, especially AI.

The prediction market space is super exciting. BGC has doubled its revenue every single year since 2022 in terms of inter-dealer brokers. It's number one in terms of revenue. And finally, like prediction markets, BGC just announced a great deal of fanatics to launch prediction markets.