Morgan Stanley

A number of banks such as Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase & Co plan to follow Citigroup and Bank of America in allowing shareholders to vote on executive compensation, reports the Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources with the knowledge of the case.

Under the statutes of the last year’s Dodd-Frank financial reform there should be a say-on-pay vote at least three years at most big U.S. companies.

According to a regulatory filing CEO of JPMorgan Chase Jamie Dimon has received restricted stock and options that could be worth $17 million at current valuations.  

US prosecutors are probing a Morgan Stanley banker Kamal Ahmed over leaking information about an upcoming takeover that ultimately was passed on to Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing unnamed sources with the knowledge of the matter.

Ahmed is the first Wall Street banker investigated publicly over Galleon whose founder Rajaratnam faces insider trading charges, the Journal said.

It became known that David Cameron, the PM of the UK, who took office 10 weeks ago, has set up an appointment with the giants of the NY financial sector to discuss the situation and persuade them to continue investing in the UK economy. Among the representatives of the US financial sector are such persons as JP Morgan's Jamie Dimon, Goldman's Lloyd Blankfein, Citigroup's Vikram Pandit, Citadel's Kenneth Griffin, Morgan Stanley's James Gorman, BlackRock's Larry Fink and BNY Mellon's Bob Kelly.

This week Morgan Stanley agreed to pay $102 million to end an investigation launched by Massachusetts prosecutors into the company’s unfair and deceptive lending practices.

According to the statement of Martha Coakley, the state's attorney general, Morgan Stanley which funded subprime loans throughout the country, improperly loaned billions of dollars to New Century which then sold loans to unqualified borrowers in the state. Morgan Stanley also packaged these risky loans and sold them to big investors like pension funds.

As usual, Theflyonthewall.com posted headlines from research reports and press releases on its website, before banks could share their recommendations with their clients.

As it’s known, in March Theflyonthewall.com was engaged in "systematic misappropriation" by US District Judge Denise Cote essentially getting a "free ride" from its quick publication of upgrades and downgrades that can move stocks higher and lower

According to some data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, major US banks temporarily reduced their debt levels just before reporting in the past five quarters. That’s why these banks’ balance sheets appeared to be less risky.

The banks, that have become more vulnerable and more sensitive about showing high levels of debt and risk due to the credit crisis, worried their stocks and credit ratings could be punished.

On Friday Discover Financial Services paid Morgan Stanley $775 million to settle claims related to sharing proceeds from an antitrust suit against credit card networks Visa Inc and MasterCard Inc.

In January New York State Supreme Court Justice Barbara Kapnick brought a ruling that Discover should give the bank part of its $2.75 billion of winnings from a separate lawsuit Discover filed against Visa and MasterCard.

Mobile Internet is forecast to outstrip desktop Internet in a short term according to the reports issued by Morgan Stanley. "Regarding pace of change, we believe more users will likely connect to the Internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs within 5 years."

Facebook and MySpace’s predecessor, Friendster, will be sold to an Asian listed firm for more than $100 million in a deal set to be announced by the end of the month.

It’s known Friendster, being founded in 2002, lost its positions in the US quickly. The social networking portal now mostly used in Asia where more than half of its registered 100 million users are from.

TechCrunch, an industry blog, valued Friendster at $210 million in July, while a fraction of Facebook's measured $10 billion valuation.

Technology stocks fell deep Friday morning as new global credit fears caused a broad wave of selling across the market in the shortened trade session following Thanksgiving.
The sell-off appeared to be triggered by worries that Dubai World, the city-state's largest corporate entity, has asked creditors for a six-month "standstill" on repayment of some $60 billion in debt.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was off nearly 200 points in early trading before stabilizing, while the S&P 500 fell nearly 2%.

 Tuesday, UBS announced it hired a Morgan Stanley investment banker, Michael Ostow, 41, who will lead its insurance practice in North America as a managing director. That is months after the bank lost two senior insurance bankers to Greenhill & Co.

Michael Ostow will join UBS as a managing director and report to Americas co-heads of the financial institutions group, Gary Howe and Halle Benett.