Granting of restricted banking licence to Bank Morgan Stanley AG

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced today (Wednesday) that the Monetary Authority has granted a restricted banking licence to Bank Morgan Stanley AG (BMSAG) under the Banking Ordinance.  The granting of this restricted banking licence took effect on 23 November 2011.

BMSAG is incorporated in Switzerland.  It is a wholly-owned banking subsidiary of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, a joint venture between Morgan Stanley (MS) and Citigroup Inc (CI).  According to the July 2010 issue of The Banker, MS and CI are the 6^th and the 3^rd largest banking groups respectively in the U.S. in terms of Tier-1 capital.

After the granting of a restricted banking licence to BMSAG, the number of restricted licence banks in Hong Kong has increased to 20.

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
23 November 2011