Morgan Stanley Names Santoro Co-Head of U.S. Equities Trading With Lauto
Morgan Stanley, which last week reported higher equity trading revenue than its five biggest competitors, hired Peter Santoro as co-head of U.S. equities trading.
Santoro will run the group with Tony Lauto, who joined the firm from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in February, according to an internal memo obtained by Bloomberg News. Morgan Stanley spokesman Mark Lake confirmed the contents of the memo. The New York-based firm also named John Neary global head of portfolio products.
Morgan Stanley beat earnings estimates last week as equity trading revenue jumped 82 percent from a year earlier. Chief Executive Officer James Gorman has added employees to Morgan Stanley’s sales and trading unit to close a gap with larger competitors including Goldman Sachs.
Santoro was head of institutional markets at Citadel Investment Group LLC until December. He previously was global head of equity trading at Citigroup Inc. and CEO of Knight Financial Products, according to the memo, which was sent by Ted Pick, global co-head of equities, and Sam Kellie-Smith, global head of trading.
Neary will also represent the equities division on the investment bank’s Financial Reform Steering Committee, which will help the firm adapt to new rules required by the law President Barack Obama signed earlier this month, according to the memo. The law boosts oversight of derivatives trading and puts limits on proprietary trading and banks’ investments in private-equity and hedge funds.
Equities trading generated $2.8 billion of net revenue in the first six months of this year. That almost matches the $3.4 billion in all of 2009, when the division bore $1.7 billion in losses related to an improvement in the firm’s own credit spreads.
To contact the reporter on this story: Michael J. Moore in New York at mmoore55@bloomberg.net.
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