Morgan Stanley on Wednesday broke a run of positive Q1 results from US banks by announcing a larger-than-expected loss and slashing its dividend by 80% in an effort to conserve capital. The bank’s $578m Q1 loss, compared with a $1.3bn profit a year ago, contrasted with Wells Fargo, which announced record quarterly earnings of $3bn. Morgan Stanley’s CEO John Mack said the bank would have been profitable without a $1.5bn accounting charge caused by a rise in the price of its debt. In the same period last year, it recorded a $1bn gain on the value of its debt.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 4:57 and is filed under Capital markets. Tagged with morgan stanley. Edit this entry.