New York-based multinational investment bank and global financial service firm Morgan Stanley announced a new crypto research team led by Sheen Shah to research cryptocurrencies’ impact on both fixed income & equities worldwide.

The company's lead crypto analyst Shah and her team will be based in London, where she will report to Adam Wood, who leads Morgan Stanley’s fintech and payments research team in Europe. She will also report to James Faucette, who leads the company’s fintech and payments research team in the U.S.

The firm’s representatives David Adelman, Juliet Estridge, and Vishy Tirupattur stated in a leaked memo reportedly seen by Bloomberg, “The launch of dedicated crypto research is in recognition of the growing significance and other digital assets in global markets.”

This new partnership is beneficial to the firm as Shah previously researched Morgan Stanley on crypto. She has worked at Morgan Stanley for more than 8 years as a currency strategist lead for Europe and her team has lately ranked first in investor surveys.

The news reveals as all banks globally show their interest in cryptocurrencies and look to increase client exposure to crypto. However, Morgan Stanley passed no comment when asked for further details about their new crypto research team.

On the back of growing investor demand, Morgan Stanley became the first bank to provide its wealth management clients access to digital asset funds in late May. In March, the firm made three bitcoin funds available to its customers. In April, the firm added bitcoin to 12 mutual funds’ investment strategies.

A growing number of investment banks including Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Standard Chartered, Wells Fargo, and DBS, have started providing or are in the process of offering cryptocurrency services to their customers.

Joyashree Dey

CBW - External Analyst

INDIA