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.