As Congress considers the merits of capping the size of the country’s biggest investment banks, Cornell’s two largest undergraduate-run investment clubs — the Cornell Investment Club and the Mutual Investment Club of Cornell — have decided to pool their resources and become one organization, abruptly ending a six year period of rivalry and competition.

CIC President Jeff Hau ’11, soon to be MICC president, said that the merger would make both organizations “more efficient,” and said that it “really made no sense” to “compete over freshmen [every year].”

Hau added that combining the groups’ funds, each around $30,000, would give the clubs more “opportunities to get involved in different financial markets.    

Hau hopes the group will become the “one-stop shop” for anyone interested in getting involved in finance.    

MICC President Ben Honig ’10 similarly stated that the “main” benefit of the merger was creating a “broader learning environment with more opportunities for students interested in financial services.”    

He added that the second biggest motivator was combing the groups’ alumni networks.    

The new investment group will look to expand its operations to managing portions of funds for other student organizations, as MICC already does for the Interfraternity Council.  

Hau explained that MICC’s “very, very low risk securities” for the IFC “could be expanded” to include “any club on campus that has a checking account,” such as a fraternity.   

He said that “after we’ve established a strong standing with student organizations,” the MICC would hope to “manage small amounts of the [University’s] endowment” as, he said, student investment clubs at Swarthmore and Georgetown already do.   

Several new investment clubs have “cropped up” on campus recently, and Hau said their emergence was a “catalyst” behind the merger, though not its sole raison d’être.    

The heads of clubs contacted for this story — Hilltop Capital, Financial Management Group of Cornell and the Alpha Fund — all said that they were not worried the merger would hurt them.    

President of Hilltop Capital Sam Zarnegar ’10 predicted that, although some students want to work for a big organization, many prefer the “smaller environment” his club offers, and is thus unworried about the merger squeezing out members from Hilltop.   

Vice President of the Financial Management Group of Cornell Nathan Wolski ’11 agreed that his organization doesn’t “feel [that we] will be negatively affected” by the merger.  “Each group can have their own philosophy and attract members to buy into [that] philosophy,” Wolski said.  “We’re a little concerned about future members, but we feel our structure is different enough [to survive].”

Cornell Investment Club Senior Analyst John Yoshida ’12 similarly felt that the “smaller clubs usually have few core members and will always be able to have few members that will always be able to carry it on.”    

Hau said that “everyone familiar with the clubs” was “extremely surprised” by the merger, given that there has “always been [a] rift between the two organizations.”   

Hau explained how MICC was started in response to frustrations with CIC in 2004, and that the two have “competed for members” since MICC’s inception. CIC was founded in 1997. 

Honig said that possible tension between groups had been an important “topic of discussion” before the merger, but ultimately concluded that the groups would overcome past differences.