On April 11, 2024, during market hours, The Wall Street Journal published an article entitled “Morgan Stanley’s Wealth Arm Probed by Multiple Federal Regulators.” The article stated the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, an independent bureau within the United States Department of the Treasury, and other Treasury Department offices, are investigating how Morgan Stanley “vets clients who are at risk of laundering money through the bank’s sprawling wealth-management division.” In addition, the article stated the main issues “boil down to whether Morgan Stanley has been sufficiently investigating the identities of prospective clients and where their wealth comes from, as well as how it monitors its clients’ financial activity. Some of the probes are focused on the bank’s international clients.”
On this news, Morgan Stanley’s stock fell $4.81 per share, or 5.2%, to close at $86.84 per share on April 11, 2024, on unusually heavy trading volume.
