It was another stellar period for Morgan Stanley’s financing franchise. The bank’s equity and debt capital markets businesses turned in a strong performance for clients, many of whom were using it to finance deals on which the bank was providing mergers and acquisitions advice. And as it did last year, the firm wins the award for North America’s best bank for financing.
According to capital markets head Mo Assomull, key to the firm’s success was trying to keep one step ahead of what clients might need to be considering at any point in time, even while the bank’s own physical location was being disrupted by the pandemic.
“The beginning of the period was as challenging as we have ever seen, but before our core financing team physically left the office, we discussed how important it would be to stay close and keep thinking about what our clients would need,” he says.
Equity capital markets is a franchise where Morgan Stanley often tops volume or fee rankings in any given quarter, vying with Goldman Sachs for that position.