Hello, and welcome to the annual meeting of shareholders of Stifel Financial Corporation. Today's meeting is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to turn today's meeting over to Ron Kruszewski, Chairman and CEO. Mr. Kruszewski, the floor is yours.
Thank you, operator. Good morning, and welcome to Stifel's 2022 annual meeting. I now ask our corporate secretary, Mark Fisher, to provide an introduction to the technical details and rules of conduct for today's virtual-only meeting and to provide a quorum report. Mr. Fisher?
Thank you, Ron. Today's virtual-only meeting is a live audio webcast. Shareholders who have already voted and do not want to change their votes do not need to take any further action. If you have not voted or wish to change your vote, you may do so at any time prior to 10 A.M. Central Time by clicking the vote link at the upper right of your screen or by visiting www.investorvote.com/sf. If you need a copy of the annual report or the proxy statement, links are provided under the Documents tab at the upper right of your screen and at the investor relations page at stifel.com. If you have logged in using a control number, you may submit questions online. This function is not available if you've logged in as a guest.
Consistent with our bylaws, we have established rules of conduct for this meeting in the interest of a fair and orderly meeting. These rules are available under the Documents tab at the upper right of your screen. Mr. Chairman, as to quorum, the tellers have submitted a certificate showing that at least 99,898,509 shares, or 93.7% of the total outstanding shares of common stock of the company are represented at this meeting. The quorum is present.
Thank you. I call the meeting to order and welcome our shareholders to this annual meeting. Thank you for joining us today. The officers and directors view you as partners, and we value your input. The directors in the office of our company, in addition to myself, participating in today's meeting are Directors Adam T. Berlew, Kathleen L. Brown, Michael W. Brown, Maura A. Markus, David A. Peacock, Thomas W. Weisel, and Michael J. Zimmerman. Also participating are senior officers James M. Zemlyak, Co-President, Victor Nesi, Co-President, Mark P. Fisher, General Counsel and Secretary, James Marischen, Chief Financial Officer, and David Sliney, Chief Operating Officer. Joining us today from Ernst & Young are Dan Cherneski and Brett Ryan. Ernst & Young is being recommended to you as our independent auditing firm for the year ending December 31, 2022. We will now begin the formal business of the meeting.
In accordance with the bylaws of the company, I'm acting as chairman of the meeting, and Mark Fisher is acting as secretary. I now appoint Jim Laschober and Michael Buckley as tellers to tabulate the votes at this meeting. An affidavit of mailing of the notice of this meeting to all shareholders of record on April 14, 2022, will be filed with the minutes of this meeting. The previous annual shareholders meeting was held on May 26, 2021. The minutes for that meeting have been made available to you under the Documents tab at the upper right of your screen. I will deem these minutes accepted without objection unless a shareholder or proxy objects by email to Stifel Investor Relations at stifel.com on or before June 30, 2022. We will now proceed to the proposal to the...
Excuse me, proceed to the proposal of directors for election. Our company's board of directors has proposed to the company shareholders that the following individuals be elected at this annual meeting as directors, each to serve as director of the company for a 1 year term or until a successor has been duly elected and qualified. Adam T. Berlew, Kathleen L. Brown, Michael W. Brown, Robert E. Grady, Ronald J. Kruszewski, Daniel J. Ludeman, Maura A. Markus, David A. Peacock, Thomas W. Weisel, and Michael J. Zimmerman. This proposal, item 1, has been duly submitted to the shareholders for a vote. As reflected in the notice of this meeting, we have 2 additional proposals before you. Item 2 is approval of an advisory resolution on executive compensation, sometimes referred to as Say on Pay. The board of directors has recommended that shareholders approve this item 2.
Item 3 is the board of directors' proposal that shareholders ratify its selection of Ernst & Young as independent auditors for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2022. Items 2 and 3 have each been duly submitted to our shareholders for a vote. I now recognize the representatives of Ernst & Young and invite them to address this meeting. Is there any statement you wish to make at this time? Not at this time. Thank you. Later in the meeting, I will recognize anyone wishing to ask questions of the representatives of Ernst & Young. As already stated, shareholders who have already voted and do not want to change their votes do not need to take any further action.
If you have not voted or wish to change your vote, you may do so at any time prior to 10 A.M. Central Time by clicking on the Vote link in the upper right of your screen or by visiting www.investorvote.com/sf. Before hearing the results of the balloting, I will talk to you about the 2021 year for Stifel. This portion of the annual meeting will be accompanied by visuals. The cover of this year's annual report is simply success. 25 years ago, when I joined Stifel as CEO, we adopted a business plan for success that remained unchanged to this day. The thought process started with our clients. How could we best meet the needs of a diverse and growing set of investors, companies, and institutions? The answer was simple but not easy. Attract the best people to work with us.
To become the advisor of choice for clients, we needed to be the firm of choice for associates. If we could achieve that, our stock price would take care of itself, and we would naturally be an investment of choice for investors. This simple, self-reinforcing cycle was the foundation of our of choice business plan and has remained the core of our philosophy and culture ever since. During our quarter century of commitment to this plan, Stifel has grown from $102 million to $4.7 billion in revenue, from $39 million to recently approximately $8 billion in market capitalization. From January 1, 1997, until February 2022, our stock price has increased 50-fold compared to the 6 fold increase in the S&P 500. Alongside this financial success, however, another kind of payoff has been quietly compounding.
As I look at this form now, it is clear that Stifel has grown into a hub for success-minded people, clients, and associates alike. When the next generation of successful entrepreneurs look for a place that reflects their own drive and values as a client, an associate, or an investor, they will feel at home at Stifel. They will recognize it as a network to success. 2021 demonstrated how our 25-year of choice business plan has evolved to the point where we have become a place where success meets success. 2021 was an extraordinary and rewarding year for both Stifel and its shareholders. The company posted revenue of more than $4.7 billion, our 26th consecutive year of record revenue, an increase of 26% over 2020.
On a non-GAAP basis, our net earnings were $840 million, a 313% increase since 2016. Diluted earnings per share totaled $7.08, and return on tangible equity was 31%, all records. Reflecting our consistent earnings and growth, we doubled our annual dividend from $0.60 to $1.20 per share. In calendar 2021, Stifel stock rose 40%, exceeding the S&P price increase of 27%. A clear benefit of our strong financial metrics is the generation of significant cash flow. In 2021, Stifel increased our capital by approximately $1 billion. We remain focused on maximizing risk-adjusted returns while deploying our capital. Yet as a growth company, we believe that investing in our business to enhance our relevance to clients is essential.
In pursuit of this objective in 2021, we grew our loan portfolio by nearly 50%, completed the strategic acquisition of Vining Sparks, repurchased $173 million in common stock, and paid common and preferred dividends of approximately $100 million. In addition, given our outlook for 2022, the increased reach and breadth of our business and our ability to generate significant excess capital after continued and anticipated investments in our franchise, we announced a doubling of our annual common dividend to $1.20 per share from 60 cents per share. Both of our operating segments had stellar years. Global Wealth Management achieved record revenue of $2.6 billion, an increase of 19% over 2020. In 2021, strong advisor recruiting, increased client activity and growth in interest earning assets fueled record results for our Global Wealth Management segment.
Our private client group now consists of more than 2,300 financial advisors who serve clients from nearly 400 offices across the country. We had a strong year for financial advisor recruiting, adding 121 advisors with total 12-month rolling trailer production of more than $77 million. In addition, we announced our intent to scale up our presence in the rapidly growing independent segment, rebranding our independent broker-dealer subsidiary as Stifel Independent Advisors. Our global wealth management business continues to benefit from growth and stability of revenue. At the end of 2021, we managed approximately $436 billion in client assets, up 22% from 2020. Our fee-based assets increased 26% from a year ago, and transactional revenues increased 13%, reflecting strong client activity during the year.
Asset management revenues increased 32% from 2020, reflecting higher asset values and strong fee-based asset flows. Stifel Bank ended the year with $25 billion in assets while maintaining a conservative risk profile. Strong mortgage activity, high demand for security-based lending and recent investments into our fund banking capabilities were contributors to the growth of our loan portfolio by 46% to $16.8 billion. This drove a 7% increase in net interest income. Our credit metrics remain solid, with non-performing asset ratio of just 0.07%. This compares very favorably to the overall market and reflects our conservative approach. Our institutional business achieved record revenue of $2.2 billion, up 36% from 2020. We've been following a strategy of growth through recruiting either individual professionals or teams through acquisition for some time now.
Our recent success is a direct result of that strategy and have enabled us to continue to recruit talented, successful professionals from many of our competitors, establish programs for talented diversity candidates to succeed, and even recruit entire successful firms to combine with us. That virtuous cycle has powered our franchise into a leader in assisting the emerging leading companies in their field. These investments we've made in people, products, and technology, combined with our organic growth of strategic combinations, led to record financial results in 2021 for our institutional group. Within the institutional group, investment banking revenues was 66% to a record $1.5 billion in 2021. We were pleased to be named U.S. Middle-Market Equity House of the Year by International Financing Review for the fourth time. Reflecting our growth, our managing director headcount exceeded 200 for the first time.
Our advisory practice had an outstanding 2021, with record revenue of $856 million, up 100% from 2020 on higher completed transactions and increased private placement fees. This growth underscores the diversity of our business and the investments we've made across multiple products and verticals. Stifel and Miller Buckfire won The M&A Advisor Restructuring Deal of the Year, Industrial Deal of the Year, and SPAC Deal of the Year awards for advising on Faraday Future's restructuring. It's also worth mentioning that our Keefe, Bruyette & Woods subsidiary had advised on 10 of the 15 largest U.S. bank mergers since 2020, representing an industry-best 67% market share. With respect to capital raising, our record revenue of $661 million represented an increase of 35% from 2020.
Our institutional sales and trading business posted revenue of $616 million. That figure comprises $255 million in equity revenue and $361 million in fixed income trading revenue. Equity underwriting revenue increased 42% to a record $434 million, driven by higher volumes. Stifel ranked as the fifth most active equity underwriter and eleventh most active book runner across all equity and equity-like products. Institutional fixed income net revenue totaled nearly $700 million. Fixed income capital raising revenues were up 25% to $227 million, driven by increases in our public finance and corporate debt issuance businesses.
Stifel became the first firm to ever underwrite 1,000 negotiated municipal bond sales in a single year, and our public finance group was the nation's leading municipal bond underwriter for the 12th consecutive year. Among our achievements in 2021, Stifel vaulted into the top 5 of Institutional Investor’s All-American Fixed Income Research Team. On the equity side, we completed the transformation of our electronic equities offering, which now includes a proprietary alternative trading system and a full suite of algorithms. We also remain one of the largest providers of research coverage in North America and Europe. It is worth noting that we achieved these results by navigating the twists and turns of the ongoing pandemic. This is a tribute to the entire organization, required the flexibility and creativity of every associate to continue to serve our clients in this environment, and I thank them for their efforts.
Such outstanding financial results year over year are only possible thanks to Stifel's culture of success. In this annual report, we traced that culture across the entire firm and showed how it was woven into our strategic plan. We told stories of success. We looked at the ways Stifel recognizes success, combines with success, shares success, and supports, and cultivates the success of the future. As always, it starts with our clients. Client service is the most visible and most critical expression of our vision to be the firm where "Success meets success." The reason is simple. Even the most routine interaction is an opportunity to treat people with respect, to show we believe in their potential for success. As we look to build on our traditional service in 2022 and beyond, the goal is to use technology to improve those connections without getting in the way.
We aim to instill a culture of yes, we can in our service associates and back them up with the tools to make them confident in that statement. This year, our service teams are working on initiatives based on analysis of client journey maps, as well as loyalty and service metrics. However, we will always depend on the human touch, a friendly voice answering the phone, as opposed to a bot or a marketing funnel. All our innovations in client service will uphold this fundamental commitment. Stifel's can-do attitude has always been anchored by a culture of ownership. Simply put, we think that owners will take better care of their assets, which make them better stewards of capital as well. We also believe that fostering an ownership mindset has been an essential part of our more than 2 decades of growth and success.
Historically, about 30% of the firm's fully diluted shares outstanding have been owned by approximately half the firm's associates. Since 1997, I have had the goal of broadening that inside ownership. Recently, we took a bold step toward achieving this goal by awarding approximately 4,200 associates with a one-time restricted stock grant of 5,000 per individual. Going forward, qualifying new associates will be eligible for a similar award. With the implementation of this program, combination with existing associate ownership, substantially all Stifel associates will achieve equity ownership of the company. Yet another example of Stifel's one firm culture where everyone is empowered to think and care about the company like an owner. In the spirit of being a firm where success meets success, Stifel partners with innovative technology providers who can deliver best-of-breed capabilities to our clients and associates.
Working alongside the best minds in each domain, our expert teams co-develop the technology required to improve and evolve the Stifel platforms. Examples include the innovative work we did with Nasdaq Market Technology to develop world-class electronic trading capabilities and our partnership with an industry disruptor, Addepar, to deliver family office reporting capabilities to all our financial advisors. 2022 will be a continuation of these efforts. This year will mark a significant milestone in our work with Salesforce to reimagine our global wealth and institutional technologies, reaching almost 6,800 professionals. Our WealthTracker platform will continue evolving with more client-initiated features and organizational capabilities. Behind the scenes, we will continue to expand our cloud-based capabilities to enhance our infrastructure security and data. At Stifel, we recognize the impact our firm has had on the clients we serve, our associates, and the communities in which we live and work.
As such, we continue to integrate environmental, social, and governance, ESG considerations into our business practices. To us, it's not just good for business, it's the right thing to do. We are committed to acting and increasing our transparency on issues such as diversity and inclusion, ethics and integrity, risk management, and sustainable finance. We work to keep Stifel a safe and welcoming workplace for our associates, one in which we can strive to truly understand each other's needs and our best path to building impactful relationships with both our colleagues and our clients. I'm proud of the significant strides we've made in our ESG initiatives in the past few years, and I invite our shareholders to learn more about them by reading our inaugural environmental, social, and governance report, which is available at stifel.com.
Look, 2021 was a great year, and we do not expect 2022 to resemble 2021, especially considering the war in Ukraine and the increase of inflation, the latter of which requires a tightening of monetary policy and reduction of fiscal stimulus. With respect to inflation, its emergence simply reflects too much money created through the combination of vast federal spending and easy monetary policy chasing too few goods. U.S. economist Milton Friedman succinctly observed that inflation can only be produced by a more rapid increase in the quantity of money than in output. With respect to the current war in Ukraine, above all, it's a humanitarian tragedy, and our thoughts are with the people of Ukraine.
Regardless of a diplomatic solution, it is hard to imagine that these events do not impact the world order, the global economy, free trade, and the position of the U.S. dollar in that hierarchy. Taken together, these factors introduce significant uncertainty and, as a result, more inherent risk. That said, as Stifel has demonstrated for over 25 years, we are a company that is both well-positioned and capable of adapting to changing environments. The balance of our business model, augmented by acquisitions, creates continued opportunities for growth and gives us confidence in our ability to generate strong results. I would note that markets like this also underscore the value of advice, and that is what Stifel provides our clients.
As always, we sincerely thank our shareholders and clients for their support, as well as our approximately over 9,000 associates for their commitment to excellence and success. Back to our voting results. I now ask the Secretary to read any questions that have been asked of me or the representatives of Ernst & Young. Mr. Fisher?
Thank you. Mr. Chairman, there were no questions properly before the meeting, and any questions received will be responded to directly.
Thank you, Mark. I now ask the Secretary to report on balloting and to state whether any other business was properly before this meeting.
Mr. Chairman, each of the following has received the majority of votes cast to serve as a director of the company for a 1 year term or until a successor has been duly elected and qualified. Adam T. Berlew, Kathleen L. Brown, Michael W. Brown, Robert E. Grady, Ronald J. Kruszewski, Daniel J. Ludeman, Maura A. Markus, David A. Peacock, Thomas W. Weisel, and Michael J. Zimmerman. The proposal contained in item 2, which approves the advisory resolution on executive compensation, sometimes referred to as Say on Pay, has received the majority of votes cast and has been approved. The proposal contained in item 3, the resolution ratifying the appointment of E&Y as our independent registered public accounting firm for the year ending December 31, 2022, has received the majority of the votes cast and has been approved. Mr.
Chairman, I'm aware of no other business properly before this meeting, nor any reason why this meeting may not now be duly adjourned.
If that's so, I declare the meeting adjourned. Thank you, everyone, and good day.
This concludes the meeting. You may now disconnect.