Case Study: Morgan Stanley’s India Story: Technology, Talent and Tools

Morgan Stanley is a leading global financial services firm providing a wide range of investment banking, securities, investment management, and wealth management services. The company caters to a global clientele comprising corporations, governmental entities, institutions, and individuals, with a widespread presence spanning over 1,200 offices across 43 countries.

Operating in India for over 3 decades, Morgan Stanley is renowned for its unparalleled institutional securities platform. The company offers a comprehensive suite of investment banking, capital markets, equities, fixed income, commodities, and derivative products, complemented by cutting-edge research capabilities, cementing its position as a leader in the Indian financial domain.

Mumbai, 2003 – The Beginning

Although the company’s tryst with India began over 3 decades ago, Morgan Stanley established its first on-shore presence In 2003, establishing its first Global In-House Center in Mumbai. The Mumbai Center was set up to serve as a cornerstone in bolstering its institutional securities, wealth management, and investment management operations on a global scale. The center serves as a dynamic hub encompassing crucial functions such as technology, operations, finance, legal & compliance, human resources, internal audit, corporate services, fund services, and prime brokerage, among other specialized areas. 

Since its inception, the Mumbai team has experienced exponential growth, evolving into a thriving organization spanning three strategic locations, a testament to Morgan Stanley’s enduring commitment to excellence and innovation in the Indian market. 

Bengaluru, 2013 – Best of Both Worlds

In 2013, Morgan Stanley solidified its bond with India by establishing a new pinnacle of excellence: the Global In-House Center (GIC) in Bengaluru. This strategic step strengthened the company’s foothold in the region, effectively giving it access to an unparalleled team of talent poised to drive transformative impact across its global operations. Acknowledging the correlation between expanding the team in India and augmenting global productivity, the creation of the Bengaluru center was strategically devised to enable Morgan Stanley to tap into India’s abundant and multifaceted talent resources.

Another major advantage of the Bengaluru center was the access that it provided to third-party internal service providers, enabling it to scale efficiently and outsource its ancillary functions. As a part of its “best of both worlds philosophy”, the company actively partners with Indian IT services providers like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) for access to innovative new technology and talent, while continuing to scale its internal technology team for safeguarding  Intellectual Property (IP)and concentrating on core functions like risk management.

Today, the technology team headcount in the country has doubled to 7,000 in the last two years underscoring India’s importance to the company’s global operations. Of the 75,000 employees MS has globally, 9,000 are in India including 7,000 in the technology team alone.

Technology Powers this Global Giant 

Through strategic investments in technology and innovation, Morgan Stanley fortifies its competitive advantage, enhances operational efficiencies, and maintains uninterrupted, resilient services 24/7. 

The company’s India-based technology team plays a key role in enabling its business-critical functionalities ~ 

• Insights for Electronic Equities: Morgan Stanley’s India-based tech workforce plays a major role in driving its global success and helping it retain its leading position in electronic equities trading. The company continues to invest in technology solutions to digitize sales & trading, uncover cross-asset synergies, and leverage big data analytics to deliver unparalleled market insights that empower its clients with a competitive advantage.

• Empowering clients through technology, tools, and insights: The company equips clients and their advisors with the tools and information they need to achieve their financial goals in an ever-changing marketplace. This integration of technology within every offering, like the AI-driven advisory platform, has enabled Morgan Stanley to revolutionize the experience of its Wealth Management clients. 

• Driving organization-wide productivity: Morgan Stanley’s technology team is diligently enhancing productivity across the firm, empowering traders, bankers, financial advisors, and sales teams to operate with heightened speed and efficiency. Leveraging advanced AI, machine learning, data analytics, and mobile and end-user technologies, the company optimizes its processes comprehensively, from front-end to back-end operations.

Today, Morgan Stanley’s technical team is powering a hugely diverse array of functionalities including low latency and algorithmic trading, complex risk calculations and big data analytics, digital and end-user solutions, sophisticated cyber defense, and large-scale, global infrastructure management.

‘..as our customers are becoming very sophisticated in what they do from a digitised economy point of view, our mandate is really to provide those kinds of cool, innovative solutions using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Language for our clients. India provides some of the key talent that we’re seeing to solve some of those innovative ideas. What we’re building in technology globally, India is the second largest overall, after New York,’

Peter Akwaboah, Chief Operating Officer of Technology and Global Head of Innovation at Morgan Stanley, as quoted in the article titled ‘Morgan Stanley says India key to its global tech strength‘ published in Businessline.