Morgan Stanley bankers hope new CEO Ted Pick ends fines in brutal texting clampdown
NY Post
Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman has slightly more than two weeks left in his nearly 14-year tenure at the helm of the Wall Street giant — and many of the rank and file are counting the days.
That’s because junior bankers are hoping to catch a break after weathering more than a year of harrowing interrogations and punishing fines stemming from a clampdown by the Securities and Exchange Commission for doing business on messaging apps in breach of record-keeping rules.
Out of $2 billion levied by the SEC across nearly a dozen US banks, Morgan Stanley was slapped with a $125 million fine in September 2022 — and Gorman took unusual measures to take it out of the hide of employees rather than investors, sources said.
Insiders at Morgan Stanley describe a “witch-hunt” atmosphere since early 2022 when the probe was first announced.
Hundreds of bankers were interrogated in lawyers’ offices about whether they’ve used personal devices to text their colleagues and bosses, according to sources.
“When we got an email saying ‘legal wants to talk’ we thought it would be training not punishment,” a Morgan Stanley source griped.
