Morgan Stanley

Last edited by apocalypticbeef on July 11, 2008 - 12:15pm

Company Snapshot:

Morgan Stanley operates through several primary business segments, comprising institutional securities (capital raising, corporate lending, financial advisory services for corporate and institutional investors); global wealth management group (brokerage and investment advisory services, and financial planning for individual investors and businesses); and asset management (asset management services in alternative investments, equity, fixed income). It also has in-house private equity operations.

Ownership status:

Publicly traded

Number of employees worldwide:

55,310

Chief executive officer:

John J. Mack

2008 Global Fortune 500 rank:

Website:

http://www.morganstanley.com/

Corporate accountability

Accountability overview:

Fines

On September 27, 2007, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced a settlement with Morgan Stanley & Co. to resolve charges that the firm's former affiliate, Morgan Stanley DW, Inc. (MSDW), failed on numerous occasions to provide emails to claimants in arbitration proceedings as well as to regulators - while representing that the destruction of the firm's email servers in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Center resulted in the loss of all pre-9/11 email. In fact, the firm had millions of pre-9/11 emails that had been restored to the firm's active email system using back-up tapes that had been stored in another location. The settlement provided for distribution of $9.5 million to two groups of customers who had arbitration claims against the firm. In addition, FINRA also imposed a $3 million fine on the firm for its failure to provide pre-9/11 emails and updates to a supervisory manual.

On August 2, 2007 FINRA announced that it fined Morgan Stanley DW Inc. (now known as Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated) $1.5 million and ordered the firm to pay more than $4.6 million in restitution for rule violations relating to the sale of corporate bonds to retail customers at excessive prices. The firm was cited for charging excessive mark-ups in more than 2,800 transactions and for having an inadequate supervisory system for monitoring the pricing of corporate fixed income securities sold to customers.

Anti-competitive and consumer protection:

In October, 2006, NY Attorney General Eliot Spitzer announced a settlement with Morgan Stanley DW Inc., a MS subsidiary, for failing to supervise Gabriele Tamar Smith, a broker who defrauded 15 customers of more than $ 740,000. Morgan Stanley settled two arbitration claims filed by Smith's clients, one for $1.9 million and the other for $300,000.