Morgan Stanley's equities traders stumbled at the finish line as JPMorgan surged

Morgan Stanley's equities traders were on fire for the majority of 2025 but, towards the end, they turned down the heat.

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Quarterly accounts released by the bank show that Q4 equities revenues for the bank rose just 10.26% while JPMorgan's skyrocketed by 39.94%. This meant JPMorgan had the largest increase in equities revenues year-on-year, despite Morgan Stanley leading them at the nine-month mark. It was still a great year for the bank, of course; yearly revenues rose 27.8%, more than the likes of Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, which also had great years. 

Equities being the star of the Morgan Stanley show is unsurprising. Ted Pick, now in his third year as Morgan Stanley CEO, made his name in equities. 

It's not just equities that did well; Morgan Stanley was consistently exceptional in almost every other division in banking and markets over the year. It was up 21% for the year in M&A, up 23% and 26% in ECM and DCM respectively. The exception, however, is its fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) trading team.

Revenues in FICC fell by 8.7% year-on-year in Q4. Citi is the only other major US bank to falter in equities in the last quarter, but fell by a much more modest 0.58%. Citi's FICC revenues were up 10% overall for the full year, while Morgan Stanley's rose a paltry 3.54%.

While US bankers and traders did a lot of the heavy lifting, it also appeared to be a particularly good year for Morgan Stanley staff in Asia. The bank's presentation to investors included a breakdown of revenues by region which showed that, in the bank's institutional securities group, 26% of 2025 revenues came from Asia. Europe encompassed just 22% of global revenues while 52% of revenues came from the Americas.  

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