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US banking giant Morgan Stanley today posted a loss of $159 million (£97 million) for the second quarter of this year — worse than analysts' forecasts.
Today's loss, which compares with a profit of $689 million for the same period a year ago, was Morgan Stanley's third consecutive quarterly loss.
Revenues fell to $5.4 billion, from $6.1 billion a year earlier.
Chief executive John Mack admitted “we are not satisfied with our performance” in key areas such as fixed-income trading and asset management.
But Mack insisted the bank would have been profitable if it had not had to pay out $850 million as part of a deal to receive funds from the American government's troubled asset relief programme.
Morgan Stanley also took a $2.3 billion hit on changing credit spreads for its long-term debt.
Other Wall Street banking rivals have already reported big profits for the quarter as trading picked up after the post-Lehman Brothers meltdown.
Goldman Sachs last week recorded a $3.44 billion profit and JP Morgan was also $2.7 billion in the black.
Matt McCormick, analyst at Bahl & Gaynor, said: “Like it or not, many people are comparing [Morgan Stanley] with the banks that came out with strong results and saying, Why can't they be more like Goldman?'”
