Morgan Stanley Oil Tankers Raise Market Power Concern at Hearing

Morgan Stanley’s involvement in an oil tanker business, petroleum transportation service and crude markets raised concerns at a Senate hearing today that the owner of the world’s largest brokerage wields too much market power.

Morgan Stanley’s ownership stake in tanker operator Heidmar Inc. and fuel distributor and marketer TransMontaigne Inc. could be giving the bank an advantage over others trading oil, Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat and chairman of the Senate’s Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection, said in a hearing. Brown’s panel took testimony at the meeting on whether banks should control commodities assets.