Succession War at Morgan Stanley?

With James Gorman’s stepping down the battle for succession has officially started. Who will likely take over and what will be the impact on the bank's performance/stock?

13 Comments
 

My money is on Saperstein. It only makes sense. They have been leaning WM heavy so he has that going for him

 

True, but how much more does he have to prove? And how much more is there for him to do? Does MS want to go that route of being seen as more a WM/IM institution vs investment banking? I see arguments both ways.

 

I think it has to do more with what the bank identifies as lately, and for MS they have leaned heavy on that WM/IM. And it was a great strategy and helped MS stock outperform some of its competitors. I think it's more of a reward and signal to shareholders to pick the guy in WM. Him being a younger guy will probably help too. 

MS will always be known as an Investment bank and legacy clients will always go to them for business. But you can see a big switch in strategy... even this year they are much slower in IBD and trail GS, JPM, BAML in league tables 

 
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i'm an MS analyst so obv biased but i'm not quite sure if a YTD league table is the best way to indicate a change in strategy away from IBD. I think MS knows IBD makes money and that the MS name will continue to generate revenue so they'll always invest in it. we aren't a european BB with questionable IBD marketshare in the US.

WM/IM just happened to be a business push that worked well so they'll continue to invest there. think about GS over the last few years, they invested in consumer banking and it went horribly but if it went well, you wouldn't have said "oh well GS is changing its strategy to focus only on consumer banking" 

 

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