Citing Morgan Stanley's "standout efforts to expand the credit derivatives market," Derivatives Week named the Firm the credit derivatives house of the year in the U.S. The UK-based trade publication made the announcement at the Landmark Hotel in London on November 17. Derivatives Weekly is a weekly newsletter focused on the derivatives industry, published by Institutional Investor.

"The U.S. group ... has pushed boundaries both in terms of structuring and flow credit trading," the editors noted in the citation. "It attracted significant attention earlier this year, for example, when it began offering credit-default swaps on leveraged loans, an alternative to trading the straight loans which are often illiquid."

DW editors singled out Morgan Stanley for that innovative work in synthetic collateralized debt obligations referencing asset-backed securities, noting that the Firm is one of the most active dealers in this sector of the market. "Since the summer, Morgan Stanley has been working with other dealers to create indices, expected to launch before year-end, of ABS and commercial mortgage-backed securities," they wrote.

In selecting award winners, DW editors took nominations from the industry and conducted interviews with members of the buy and sell sides. Winners were decided in each category on the basis of factors including innovation and excellence of performance.