Morgan Stanley is a large American bank holding company and one of financial conglomerates. The head office is situated in New York. The company runs the largest brokerage business in the world.

Morgan Stanley provides a number of financial services to its clients, including private and legal bodies, government and financial organizations. The key business lines are the management of corporate securities, wealth management, and investment management.

The bank's shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the #MS ticker.

Morgan Stanley was founded in 1935 by Henry Morgan and Harold Stanley. In the first business year the bank took a 24% market in initial public offerings (IPO).

In 1962 the bank was the first to create a successful computer model for the financial market analysis. In 1967 the representation office was opened in Paris, in the same year the bank bought out the stocks of Brooks, Harvey & Co., Inc. and came into the real estate market.

In 1971 Morgan Stanley established its mergers and acquisitions, as well as sales and trading departments. In 1986 the bank came to IPO and became a public company.

During the period from 1991 to 1997 the company bought out Van Kampen American Capital and Dean Witter and Discover & Co.

The mortgage crisis of 2007 had a great impact on the Morgan Stanley bank's activity. According to the results of the year, the company lost $9 billion. In 2008 Morgan Stanley turned out to be one of the most crisis-struck companies as it depended heavily on the hedge fund investments. In the same year the Japanese bank Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group invested $9 billion in Morgan Stanley in exchange for a 21% stake in the shareholders' equity.

At the moment Morgan Stanley is a traditional bank corporation, which is regulated by the Federal Reserve of the USA. Following the results of 2015, Morgan Stanley was included in the Fortune 500 list of the largest US companies, taking the 95th place and the 35th place by assets.