The US investment bank has reported a positive second quarter performance with a 41% jump in net revenues of US$13.4 billion from the first quarter of 2020 and a 31% increase year-on-year.

The figures are indicative of the firm’s strong comeback from a difficult first quarter brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, in which net revenues slid to US$9.5 billion from US$10.3 billion in the same period of 2019.

Morgan Stanley has been the most prolific distributor group in the US market in terms of sales in Q2 20 having issued 580 structured products at a volume of US$3.04 billion, according to SRP data. The firm climbed from third place in Q2 19 (417 products sold at US$2.24 billion) when Bank of America dominated distributor group sales (US$2.7 billion).

As a manufacturer, the US bank was the third most active issuer with 664 notes marketed in Q2 20 worth US$1.5 billion, an 11.1% market share. Only Barclays Bank (16.5% market share) and Citigroup (12.04%) were more active in this period. The bank saw its issuance fall quarter-on-quarter from 687 products / US$2.3 billion (10.1% market share) but took over JP Morgan (Q1 20 – 1,000 products/US$2.5 billion v Q2 20 – 927 products/US$1.6 billion).

In Brazil, Morgan Stanley has retained the second place in terms of issuance since Q2 19 with its most recent figure standing at 25 products with a sales volume of BRL 238m (US$44m).

SRP data shows that Morgan Stanley has 402,627 live products globally with its major markets being the US (US$27.4 billion), UK (US$128.5m), Germany (US$860.9m), Japan (US$470.5m) and France (US$291.8m).

The majority of the products are wrapped as leverage certificates, warrants, registered notes (unlisted), investment certificates, CDs and CBBCs.

The bank’s net income underwent a significant boost in Q2 20 reaching US$3.2 billion, $1bn more than in Q2 19. Net interest income also grew by 18% from Q1 20 to US$1.6 billion and 55% from Q2 19.

The institutional securities division of the bank led by chief executive officer James Gorman (pictured), saw an increase in its net revenues of 56% (US$7.97 billion) with strong client engagement and market stabilisation leading to an uptick in sales and trading of about 68% (US$5.55 billion).

Bank lending also climbed by 15% while brokerage sweep deposits were up US$40 billion from a year ago.

Investment management recorded US$665 billion in assets under management, reporting long-term net flows of US$15.4 billion.

Click here to view the second quarter results.