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The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced today (November 23) that the Monetary Authority has granted a restricted banking licence to Bank Morgan Stanley AG (BMSAG) under the Banking Ordinance. The granting of this restricted banking licence took effect on November 23, 2011.
BMSAG is incorporated in Switzerland. It is a wholly-owned banking subsidiary of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, a joint venture between Morgan Stanley (MS) and Citigroup Inc (CI). According to the July 2010 issue of The Banker, MS and CI are the 6th and the 3rd largest banking groups respectively in the U.S. in terms of Tier-1 capital.
After the granting of a restricted banking licence to BMSAG, the number of restricted licence banks in Hong Kong has increased to 20.
Ends/Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Issued at HKT 16:39
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