According to Bloomberg, Morgan Stanley (MS) is seeking regulatory approval to make financial advisers dual employees of its bank subsidiary in addition to the broker-dealer as the firm works to increase mortgage lending.
The move would allow the advisers to get a national charter for mortgage lending rather than state registration, said the person, who asked not to be identified because a decision hasn’t been made. That would allow them to originate mortgages for clients in multiple states without having to register in each state individually.
CEO James Gorman is pushing for the firm’s 16,500 advisers to lend to retail brokerage customers as it gains almost $60 billion of deposits from Citigroup Inc. over the next two years. The deposits come from Morgan Stanley’s purchase of the remaining stake in its joint venture with Citigroup’s Smith Barney brokerage earlier this year.
