What Morgan Stanley said

21 April 2010

1 minute read

Morgan Stanley's call regarding its first quarter results has just finished.

For those who didn't listen in, here are the salient points.

On the compensation ratio

It's going down. The compensation ratio in the institutional securities business in the first quarter was 41%, but this included an accrual for the UK bonus tax. Last year it was 65%.

The bank still aims to reduce the compensation ratio over time.

On FICC revenues and FICC hiring

There was no mention of whether hiring for FICC is now complete, but there was mention of a, "multi-quarter build" and a "significant increase in distribution and footprint in IR, FX and emerging markets."

Rates and credit were particularly strong in the last quarter. The 350 hires the bank has made across sales and trading have had a, "staggered start," and "ramping up takes time." The real impact of recent hires in FICC will be "measured over future quarters."

AUTHORSarah Butcher

Global Editor

4 comments

Tr
Trader
22 April 2010
@ still@lehman.. noone cares that MS gained the second most considering they were starting from such a crap/low base from 1Q09. Lets wait for all the others to report so we can get a better granularity. So far, their absolute market shares are still pathetic for what's considered a tier 1 bank. It's 2nd tier at best. Not in line with GS, JPM & BAC.
Reply
st
still@lehman
22 April 2010
@trader - please see..
http://news.efinancialcaree...
MS are second on the scorecard...
Reply
Tr
Trader
22 April 2010
@ Still@lehman... How did you figure that? Even Citi and BofA blew MS out of the water on the results.. heck even RBS did (on 2009 results)! I just don't get why MS still has this hallowed glow of tier 1 superiority anymore.. it's a 3rd tier, 2nd tier at best, investment bank now. Less than $3bn FICC revenues when GS is doing almost 3x more, everyone else atleast 2x more? I hadn't realised MS fucked this up so badly!
Reply
st
still@lehman
22 April 2010
wokring late Sarah? so much for the 2nd tier article a few days back - i think these results put them fully back in the chasing pack (after GS of course..)
Reply