Banking Giant Morgan Stanley is Ready to Set Foot in the ETF Market

Market analysts seem excited about Morgan Stanley’s entry into ETF. Wall Street banking giant Morgan Stanley hopes to enter the ETF market this year. In terms of continuing to promote asset management, Morgan Stanley will launch its exchange traded fund (ETF) platform in 2022.

Daniel Simkowitz, head of investment management at Morgan Stanley, confirmed this in a memo released earlier this week. To implement the project, Morgan Stanley has hired two big name veterans – Anthony Rockett from Goldman Sachs and Allison Wallace from BlackRock. The memorandum also mentioned that Mr. rochte will join as the global head of ETF and Ms. Wallace will join as the global head of ETF capital market of the platform. Morgan Stanley’s first ETF product will be launched within a year.

As of December 31, 2021, Morgan Stanley Investment Management has managed $1.6 trillion in assets. Mr. Rockett has rich experience in ETF market. At Goldman Sachs, he served as co head of its private banking options business. Before that, he was committed to establishing Fidelity’s ETF business.

On the other hand, Ms. Wallace served as the global head of revenue products of iShares ETF business. Simkowitz added: “Under the leadership of Tony and ally, we will develop a powerful ETF platform to support ETFs across businesses, asset classes, jurisdictions and brands.

Market Analysts Praised Morgan Stanley’s ETF Plan

Market analysts seem excited about Morgan Stanley’s entry into ETF. Ben Johnson, research director of Morningstar’s global exchange traded fund, wrote in an email to pension and investment.
“ETF is Morgan Stanley’s last box that hasn’t been closed on the bingo card of large-scale asset management company. It already has the franchise of mutual fund, has long provided independent management accounts, and gained direct indexation ability when it included  Eaton Vance/Parametric.”

Mr. Jhonson also expressed his excitement about how Morgan Stanley “selected points” to establish its ETF lineup. “For example, I’m not sure if some of their stock pickers will adapt to this form – especially if capacity is a problem,” he said.

Morgan Stanley has also recently shown some interest in cryptocurrency. It published a report earlier this year expressing its views on the bitcoin.