JM Morgan Stanley Direct

Net - another channel
JM Morgan Stanley Direct is the retail services arm of JM Morgan Stanley Ltd., a joint venture between J M Financial & Investment Consultancy and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. The firm offers the widest range of capital market products designed to protect and enhance the wealth of investors. Now, it is foraying into e-trading for retail customers.

The firm thinks that service will be the key for any brokerage house. Says Pallav Sinha, chief executive (retail services), “There is place for both traditional brokers as well as Net brokers. Several broking companies are targetting customers via Net trading. In the US, companies like Merrill Lynch, which had only brick-and-mortar, had to quickly move to Net trading. Several channels will ultimately co-exist.”

Adds he, “Actually, two things happened simultaneously in the US, one, a ten-year bull run, and,two, the boom in Net trading. So, in fact, Net trading benefited from the wave in the capital market. Had there been no Net trading, then brokers might have had to put up more brick and mortar outlets for investors to benefit from the bull run. I don’t think that the Internet or any channel can change the basic dynamics of the market. People will try to benefit from the capital market to the extent they can and through a variety of channels.“