Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in the Morgan Stanley Building, Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Morgan Stanley operates in 42 countries and has more than 1300 offices and 60,000 employees. According to the Scorpio Partnership Global Private Banking Benchmark the company had 1,454 USD Bn of assets under management (AuM) in 2014, an increase of 17.5% on the 2013 figure.
The corporation, formed by J.P. Morgan & Co. partners Henry S. Morgan (grandson of J.P. Morgan), Harold Stanley and others, came into existence on September 16, 1935, in response to the Glass-Steagall Act that required the splitting of commercial and investment banking businesses. In its first year the company operated with a 24% market share (US$1.1 billion) in public offerings and private placements. The main areas of business for the firm today are Global Wealth Management, Institutional Securities, and Investment Management.
In order to cope with the write-downs during the subprime mortgage crisis, Morgan Stanley announced on December 19, 2007 that it would receive a US$5 billion capital infusion from the China Investment Corporation in exchange for securities that would be convertible to 9.9% of its shares in 2010.[19]
The bank's Process Driven Trading unit was amongst several on Wall Street caught in a short squeeze, reportedly losing nearly $300 million in one day. One of the stocks involved in this squeeze, Beazer Homes USA, was a component of the then-bulging real estate bubble. The bubble's subsequent collapse was considered to be a central feature of the financial crisis of 2007–2010.[20]
The bank was contracted by the United States Treasury in August 2008 to advise the government on potential rescue strategies for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.[21]
Morgan Stanley is said to have lost over 80% of its market value between 2007 and 2008 during the financial crisis.[22]
On September 17, 2008, the British evening-news analysis program Newsnight reported that Morgan Stanley was facing difficulties after a 42% slide in its share price. CEO John J. Mack wrote in a memo to staff "we're in the midst of a market controlled by fear and rumours and short-sellers are driving our stock down." The company was said to have explored merger possibilities with CITIC, Wachovia, HSBC, Standard Chartered, Banco Santander and Nomura.[23] At one point, Hank Paulson offered Morgan Stanley to JPMorgan Chase at no cost, but Jamie Dimon refused the offer.[24]
Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, the last two major investment banks in the US, both announced on September 22, 2008 that they would become traditional bank holding companies regulated by the Federal Reserve.[25] The Federal Reserve's approval of their bid to become banks ended the ascendancy of securities firms, 75 years after Congress separated them from deposit-taking lenders, and capped weeks of chaos that sent Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. into bankruptcy and led to the rushed sale of Merrill Lynch & Co. to Bank of America Corp.[26]
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Japan's largest bank, invested $9 billion in Morgan Stanley on September 29, 2008.[27] This represented the single largest physical check signed, delivered and cashed.[28] Concerns over the completion of the Mitsubishi deal during the October 2008 stock market volatility caused a dramatic fall in Morgan Stanley's stock price to levels last seen in 1994. It recovered once Mitsubishi UFJ's 21% stake in Morgan Stanley was completed on October 14, 2008.[29][30][31][32]
Morgan Stanley borrowed $107.3 billion from the Fed during the 2008 crises, the most of any bank, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News Service and published August 22, 2011. [33]
In 2009, Morgan Stanley purchased Smith Barney from Citigroup and the new broker-dealer operates under the name Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, the largest wealth management business in the world.
In November 2013, Morgan Stanley announced that it would invest $1 billion to help improve affordable housing as part of a wider push to encourage investment in efforts that aid economic, social and environmental sustainability.[34]
In July 2014, Morgan Stanley’s Asian private equity arm announced it had raised around $1.7 billion for its fourth fund in the area.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_Stanley
