As the immediate chaos of the global financial crisis subsided, Morgan Stanley took a long hard look at its strategy and chose to focus on wealth and investment management. It is a decision that has paid off. Private banking generates steadier, more reliable income streams than the more cyclical business of investment banking.
In 2022, wealth management generated pre-tax profit of $6.6 billion on revenues of $24.4 billion – both record numbers. Most of that was generated in North America, where it has more than 520 wealth management branches. It pulled in $311 billion of net new assets (NNA) last year, pushing total wealth-related client assets to $4.2 trillion. In the last three months of 2022, the Wall Street bank generated record revenues of $6.62 billion, up 5.9% year on year.
Its success has been rewarded by investors who, unsurprisingly, like the quality of its strategy and the scale of its ambition.