While many financial institutions have close their doors to cryptocurrencies stating that they are too risky a proposal.
Morgan Stanley is investing time and money into developing its digital currency offerings.
The company strengthened its digital currency offering team by recently poaching Credit Suisse's resident ‘bitcoin expert’ Andrew Peel.
Morgan Stanley released a press release last month stating that they were hiring Andrew Peel as their new head of digital assets market. Peel will be based out of Zurich and London, managing the bank's still non-existent digital assets.
Peel is a veteran in the banking and finance industry and has spent the past 12 years working at Credit Suisse. He has been both a derivatives trader for the Swiss bank, as well as a part of their Sales & Trading Innovation Team in the position of Vice President. His main focus during the latter part of his career at Credit Suisse was working on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies – which made him the Swiss bank's resident expert.
Before Credit Suisse, Peel graduated from Nottingham University Business School with a Bachelor of Arts in Business Information Systems. This led him to his first job at Inform8. He then quickly moved on to Lloyds Banking Group in 2005 as a graduate management trainee before joining Credit Suisse in 2006.
Morgan Stanley’s Focus On Bitcoin
Morgan Stanley is being very proactive with regards to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The appointment of Peel is further confirmation of the bank’s commitment towards Bitcoin. Morgan Stanley was the second major bank after Goldman Sachs to clear bitcoin futures. In May 2018, the bank released a report on how bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies can potentially help the financial industry and how they can be leveraged by banks for better performance and profits.
One key suggestion was to have central banks use cryptocurrencies to help cut down interest rates, which should help cushion any future financial crisis. However, Morgan Stanley has not ignored the deficiencies of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.
James Gorman, CEO of Morgan Stanley, has been quite positive about the cryptocurrency market but also points out that they are very speculative and volatile. Analysts from the company have also presented the potential of bitcoin prices crashing to zero and how they are not a good protection against inflation.
Despite these conflicting statement, Morgan Stanley and other banks are looking towards launching their own crypto trading desks, which could turn out to be one of Peel’s major projects going forward.