The US investment bank achieved record net revenues of US$15.7 billion in the first quarter of 2021, compared with US$9.8 billion during the same period in 2020.

Morgan Stanley saw its structured product sales skyrocket by US$1 billion compared to the prior year period during the first quarter of 2021 to reach US$3.7 billion.

SRP data shows that Morgan Stanley topped the US league tables as the most dominant issuer group with 828 structured products (US$3.76 billion), compared with 746 products (US$2.46 billion) in Q1 20.

Closely tailing behind are Barclays with 662 products worth US$3.5 billion, Goldman Sachs with 899 products valued at US$3.4 billion, J.P. Morgan with 1,204 products with a sales volume of US$3.3 billion, and Citi with 883 products worth US$2.8 billion.

The bank’s structured product issuance steadily declined during the first three quarters of 2020, crashing to a record low of 541 products valued at US$1.6 billion in Q3 20.

This figure rebounded in the following quarter to total 643 products with a sales volume of around US$2.8 billon.

Beyond US

In Brazil, the bank has slid from its former number one ranking to fourth place with 11 products sold at BRL 141m (US$26m), compared with 45 structured products valued at BRL 470m in the first quarter of 2020.

The bank’s issuance in the European structured products market has remained steady in Q1 21 with 15,103 products worth EUR 161m (US$195m) compared with 15,416 products valued at EUR 149m in Q1 20.

Sales in the Apac region have remained steady despite issuance dropping by almost half from 681 products (US$857m) in Q1 20 to 384 in the current quarter with a sales figure of US$878m.

Of the 6,508 live structured products issued by Morgan Stanley in the SRP database, 491 of them were tied to the bank’s proprietary index Morgan Stanley MAP Trend Index with a sales volume of about US$501m.

Some popular underlying sectors covered by the US investment bank in Q1 21 include technology (175 products/US$1 billion), proprietary and custom indices (495/US$504m), emerging markets (200/US$773m), Apac (123/US$1.2 billion) and Europe (923/US$4.5 billion).

Main distributors of Morgan Stanley products besides the bank’s own retail distribution network include UBS Financial Services with 528 products worth US$4.6 billion, Bank Leumi with 109 products valued at US$1.3 billion, Raymond James with 375 products valued at US$675m, and Incapital with 386 products worth US$659m. 

Divisional breakdown

The bank’s institutional securities division also reported record net revenues up 66% reflecting higher volumes in a constructive market environment, while wealth and investment management delivered net revenues of US$5.9 billion and US$1.3 billion, respectively.

Investment banking revenues grew 128% in the first quarter with both equity and fixed income underwriting increasing to US$1.5 billion and US$631m each.

Provision for credit losses on loans and lending commitments stand at US$93m in the current quarter compared with US$388m in Q1 20 reflects a release in the allowance for credit losses driven by improvements in the macroeconomic market outlook.

The bank led by James Gorman (pictured) also closed the acquisition of asset management firm Eaton Vance which added US$1.4 trillion of assets to the Investment Management business.

Click here to view the bank’s Q1 21 earnings release.