Morgan Stanley Advisors Join Bank-Deposit Push

Morgan Stanley says it has begun “leveraging” its 8,500 financial advisors, 500 retail offices nationwide and new bank-holding structure, to build new bank deposits. The company also says Morgan Stanley Bank, N.A, raised $3 billion in CDs in its first four weeks.

The firm also announced that its advisors were being asked to “raise client awareness” about banking services available through its global wealth management group. In addition, the company intends to roll out new bank products next year, such as new savings account products and global currency accounts and use its Swiss bank to expand international banking activities.

In the company’s third quarter ended August 31, Morgan Stanley reported a total of $36 billion in deposits.

Some bank services already available to clients include global ATM access, online bill payment and a range of banking services for small business.

In addition, Morgan Stanley says it plans to continue to expand its offering of traditional banking products and “to explore both organic and acquisition opportunities to continue developing banking capabilities to better serve its clients.”

In the third quarter, the global wealth management group had a pre-tax loss of $34 million vs. pre-tax income of $287 million in the third quarter of last year. Net revenues were $1.6 billion, down 8 percent.