NEW YORK - Unwittingly, Cantor Fitzgerald, a small brokerage firm, became the face of the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York City.

In a matter of a few terrifying seconds, a plane hit the 93rd floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center and 658 of the 960 employees at the firm perished. The company's offices occupied the 101st to the 105th floors of the building. No one in them had a chance of surviving.

That the company not only came through the attack but has since managed to become even larger is nothing short of remarkable. That feat is now seen by many as showing how determined those who weren't in the building at the time of the attack were to give something back to people who had lost everything. "The survivors decided to rebuild," said Robert Hubbell, managing director of communications, who was not with the company on Sept 11.

"Their one motivation was to help the families of the employees that were lost," Hubbell said.

"Those who avoided the attack pledged to commit 25 percent of the company's profit plus 10 years of health care for the families. Skeptics in the press said it was a hollow promise because, 'What's 25 percent of nothing?' But they didn't commit to it until they knew they could do it."

So far, $180 million has been given, amounting to at least $100,000 for each family.

Seven years ago, Cantor Fitzgerald also established a Charity Day on which the profit the company makes on Sept. 11 or the closest corresponding day is given to a variety of charities. The beneficiaries include Wounded Warriors, which assists US armed service personnel who were wounded following the terrorist attacks, and various organizations that conduct cancer research. Last year, the firm gave away a record $12 million.

Asked about the mood of Cantor Fitzgerald employees as the 10th anniversary of the attack approaches on Sunday, Hubbell said, "Well, we have 1,400 new people and they weren't part of that personally." There are only about 100 people still with the firm who were there when the attack occurred and Hubbell said they are reluctant to be interviewed about that day. The company did not make any of them available to China Daily.

Hubbell said he thinks the company attracts employees of high character. "Is Charity Day the sole reason they come here? No. But they're aware of it," Hubbell explained.

Even before the attack, the company always sought out family members as employees. "The reason our company is unique," Hubbell said, "is we have no strict policy against nepotism. In fact, families were strongly encouraged to bring in relatives. If a brother-in-law was really good at what he did, yeah, why not?"

"The tragedy was that there were a lot of close relationships," Hubbell said. "The chairman (Howard Lutnick) lost his brother and best friend."

Lutnick, also CEO of the firm, was one of the 302 Cantor employees who was not in the office on Sept 11. He avoided the attack because he was taking his 5-year-old to kindergarten for the first time.

What has been gratifying to many families is that the children of one mother who lost her husband on Sept. 11 are now coming to work for the company.

"It's a spectacular honor for them and the families," Hubbell said.

Despite the recent financial crisis, which crippled many financial institutions in the city in 2008, Cantor Fitzgerald's business has never been better. In 2004, it spun off its wholesale brokerage unit, BGC Partners, into an independent, public company that now has 2,500 employees.

Cantor has managed to avoid the troubles that forced Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns out of business, and 2008 turned out to be a time of prosperity for the company. It managed to hire many talented Wall Street workers, who were attracted by the firm's "cool business model", according to Hubbell. Cantor is a client-service firm acting as a middleman for large clients such as hedge funds, insurers and pension funds.

Cantor is in its 66th year of doing business and has two New York locations and its headquarters on Park Avenue.

China Daily