Morgan Stanley (MS) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS.PK) Q4 2022 Results Conference Call January 17, 2023 8:30 AM ET

Company Participants

James Gorman - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Sharon Yeshaya - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Glenn Schorr - Evercore ISI

Ebrahim Poonawala - Bank of America

Brennan Hawken - UBS

Steven Chubak - Wolfe Research

Dan Fannon - Jefferies

Gerard Cassidy - RBC

Mike Mayo - Wells Fargo

Matt O'Connor - Deutsche Bank

Operator

Good morning. On behalf of Morgan Stanley, I will begin the call with the following disclaimer. This call is being recorded. During today's presentation, we will refer to our earnings release and financial supplement, copies of which are available at morganstanley.com.

Today's presentation may include forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. Please refer to our notices regarding forward-looking statements and non-GAAP measures that appear in the earnings release and strategic update.

Within the strategic update, certain reported information has been adjusted as noted. These adjustments were made to provide a transparent and comparative view of our operating performance against our strategic objectives. The reconciliations of these non-GAAP adjusted operating performance metrics are included in the notes to the presentation or the earnings release. This presentation may not be duplicated or reproduced without our consent.

I will now turn the call over to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, James Gorman.

James Gorman

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us. The macro backdrop of the last year presented challenges we haven't seen for some time. The combined impact of persistent inflation and rapid central bank tightening pressured asset levels and led to some – let to very little strategic activity and capital raising.

Despite volatility throughout the year, Morgan Stanley demonstrated resilience and delivered on an ROTCE of 16%, including integration-related expenses from our deals. The firm did what it was supposed to do with our more stable Wealth and Investment Management businesses offsetting declines in Institutional Securities.

This is hard evidence of the transformation we've made to become increasingly durable and a stark contrast to the 8% ROTCE we had in the last notable challenging environment of 2015. When markets rebound, we will capitalize on growth once again across the full firm and from an even stronger position.

Before turning to Sharon to discuss the details of the fourth quarter and the full year, I'll walk you through now how we plan to achieve these goals in our annual strategic update appropriately titled delivering growth through the next decade. Briefly first, I'd like to acknowledge the many contributions Jon Pruzan made as CFO and COO. As you know, he's retiring from Morgan Stanley at the end of this month, and we wish him the absolute best.