Morgan Stanley received two awards at this year’s Financial News "Awards for IT Excellence in Investment Banking" ceremony in London at Merchant Taylor’s Hall. The judges for the securities industry publication’s annual event awarded the Firm Best Personal and Team Contribution and, for the second consecutive year, Best Electronic Trading: Dealer to Institution - Equities.

Chief Information Officer, European IT, Jon Saxe and his team won the Best Personal and Team Contribution award. Financial News highlighted the European IT team’s strategic initiatives across all lines of business including:

• client technology and connectivity
• straight-through processing and trading efficiencies
• business continuity planning and risk
• business expansion

These and other efforts have translated into a 50% increase in client connectivity in the past year.

Financial News noted the flexibility and high level of job satisfaction in European IT as testament to the quality of Saxe's team, that includes:

• Mark Ormerod, equities development and straight-through processing
• Bill Moran, fixed income applications development
• Ralph Davies, equity research and investment banking
• Graeme Middlemiss, company functions
• Mike O’Toole, infrastructure, enterprise projects and risk
• Susie Arber, regional chief operations officer

"We make a big effort to talk to our staff about what is going on in the business, both globally and locally. We also run many programs with our junior and newly promoted people to encourage them to initiate ideas," said Saxe, in the profile article.

Morgan Stanley's recognition for Best Electronic Trading: Dealer to Institution – Equities reflects the Firm's ability "to trade well when trading on behalf of its clients and when the bank puts up its own capital," according to the Financial News. The profile article highlighted the suite of products available to Institutional Equity employees as well as clients.

"The key to successful electronic trading," said Brian Fagen, Managing Director, "is understanding how and when to use innovative technology to meet our clients’ trading objectives."

"The Awards for IT Excellence in Investment Banking" provides a forum of industry peers, service providers, clients and investors to recognize leaders of the IT community for investment banking across Europe. Over 40 consultants, banks, electronic brokerages and vendors voted on the nominated groups in each of the 14 categories.