Morgan Stanley launches wealth management business in Canada

(Reuters) - Morgan Stanley said on Wednesday that it was launching a new international branch of its wealth management business in Canada, marking the U.S. bank's entry into a market that has been seeing intense domestic competition.

Most Canadian banks and insurers have strong wealth and asset management units that compete fiercely to add rich Canadians to their list of clients by offering a range of products and services to cater to their financial needs.

Morgan Stanley will offer full-service financial advisers, virtual financial advisers, a discount self-directed investing solution and online investment management as part of its wealth management services.

The bank said Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Canada will be a part of the stock plan administrative services that it currently offers through Shareworks, a company it acquired in 2019.

The bank, which has had investment bankers and traders operating in Canada for over 60 years, said it had selected Canaccord Genuity as its deployment partner for the business.

(Reporting by Abhishek Manikandan in Bengaluru and Elizabeth Dilts Marshall in New York; Editing by Anil D'Silva)