Morgan Stanley has dominated the equities section of Euromoney’s internet awards every year since they began in 2000. And to the disappointment of firms that have worked hard to catch up, it remains the best bank in online equities, winning all but two of the categories open to it.
Eli Lederman, global head of electronic trading services at Morgan Stanley, attributes the bank’s success in developing online equities products to the integral role of technology in the bank’s strategy. “Technology has never been a standalone initiative at Morgan Stanley,” he says. “It’s integrated in everything else we do and we see it as just another way to help us work more closely with our clients to achieve their objectives.”
This approach has helped Morgan Stanley to produce online products such as TradeXL, its online trading platform, and BasketLink, its online portfolio analytics suite, that are more advanced and useful than anything its competitors have built. But its competitors are watching closely. UBS Warburg, for example, beat 13 other banks to win best site for equities research, our most competitive award. It also won the award for warrants, and was a close runner-up in convertibles, new issues and equity trading. The firm has recently launched a new version of its equities portal that is well-designed and easily navigable. As a package, it is a strong rival to Morgan Stanley’s offering, and it is a close runner-up for the overall equities award. It is boosting the quality of all its sites, and will be a strong contender for the top slot in 2003.
Morgan Stanley will have to work hard to protect its lead. But it has no intention of falling behind. Nell Axelrod, European applications product manager at Morgan Stanley, says: “We feel, and our clients feel, that we have done a good job with our equity product offering, but there is no question of us resting on our laurels. We are completely committed to the continued development of our products.”
In the equities categories, Morgan Stanley also won: best site for new issues, best site for equity trading, best analytics tools, and best site for equities prime brokerage. More details of these sites are available on www.euromoney.com.
