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Morgan Stanley (MS)

Q1 2023 Earnings Call· Wed, Apr 19, 2023

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning. On behalf of Morgan Stanley, I will begin the call with the following disclaimer. This call is being recorded. During today’s presentation, we will refer to our earnings release and financial supplement copies of which are available at morganstanley.com. Today’s presentation may include forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. Please refer to our notices regarding forward-looking statements and non-GAAP measures that appear in the earnings release. This presentation may not be duplicated or reproduced without our consent. I will now turn the call over to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, James Gorman.

James Gorman

Management

Good morning, everyone and thank you for joining us. The first quarter of 2023 was very eventful for our industry, but not so eventful for Morgan Stanley. Firm delivered strong results with revenues of over $14.5 billion, net income of $3 billion, ROTCE of 17% and net new asset flows of $110 billion. At the same time, we bought back $1.5 billion of stock while maintaining a CET ratio of 15.1%. In many ways, it was an excellent test to Morgan Stanley and the opportunity to show the strength and stability of our business model. Let me just touch briefly on the turmoil and the banking sector. In my view, we are not in a banking crisis, but we have had and may still have a crisis among some banks. I believe strong regulatory intervention on both sides of the Atlantic led to the cauterization of the damage. I consider the current issues is not remotely comparable to 2008. I was pleased that Morgan Stanley, along with the other large U.S. banks, became part of the solution by providing an uninsured deposit line of $30 billion to First Republic Bank. Someone who lived through the darkest days of 2008 where Morgan Stanley was seen as part of the problem, it’s indeed rewarding to be here 14 years later as part of the solution. Turning back to our own company, while the performance of the overall business was strong, the results reflected the impact of the environment. In Wealth Management, positive flows of $110 billion were a very strong result, reflect continued growth in the model together with the flight to quality. This obviously gives us a good start to our 1 trillion every 3 years target. Investment management also benefited from diversification as long-term outflows moderated and we saw strength…

Sharon Yeshaya

Management

Thank you, and good morning. The firm produced revenues of $14.5 billion in the first quarter, our EPS was $1.70, and our ROTCE was 16.9%. The firm’s results demonstrated the durability of our business model, evidenced by the resilient ROTCE, robust asset consolidation and wealth and our stable capital and liquidity levels. In institutional securities, fixed income and equity supported our clients while navigating volatile markets. Wealth Management showcased $110 billion of net new assets and investment management continued to benefit from the investments we have made to diversify our offerings. The firm’s first quarter efficiency ratio was 72%. Deferred cash-based compensation plans negatively impacted our firm’s efficiency ratio by approximately 60 basis points. Ongoing technology and marketing and business development investments as well as higher litigation costs increased operational expenses versus the prior year. Given the broader market uncertainty and the inflationary environment, expense management remains a priority, although we continue to prioritize investments in our long-term goals. Now to the businesses. Institutional Securities revenues were $6.8 billion, an 11% decline from the very strong prior year. Fixed income and equity results partially offset weakness in banking as we helped our clients intermediate markets through this period of heightened uncertainty. From a regional perspective, Asia delivered its third highest quarter ever with strength in areas of both fixed income and equity aided by the policy dynamics in Japan and the China reopening. Investment Banking revenues decreased year-over-year to $1.2 billion, solid revenue in advisory supported results while ongoing market volatility continued to pressure equity and non-investment grade underwriting. Advisory revenues were $638 million, benefiting from the completion of previously announced transactions. Revenues were down versus the strong prior year on the back of lower announced volumes in 2022. Equity underwriting revenues were $202 million, down 22%, largely as a…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] We’ll take your first question from Daniel Fannon from Jefferies.

Daniel Fannon

Analyst

Thanks. Good morning. Just thinking about the environment and the opportunity, can you talk about adviser recruitment, I assume retention is high, but as you think about the opportunity, given some of the fallout with some of the regional banks, in the current environment. Maybe talk about how you are positioned and maybe how that differentiates versus say a year ago?

Sharon Yeshaya

Management

Certainly. The adviser recruiting pipeline remains healthy. We continue to see assets aggregated from all channels, as I mentioned, both recruiting, adviser-led and workplace and when we compare it to a year ago, I think that what we continue to see is that we remain a destination of choice, not only for new advisers, but also obviously, as we stated, from the assets held away that we continue to aggregate in both the net new assets from existing and from new clients.

Daniel Fannon

Analyst

And then just as a follow-up, with NII, generally probably a little more challenged versus where we were last year, how do you think about wealth management margin expansion in this environment? And maybe specifically, can you talk to you the NII trends as you think about this year and how we should think about that given some of the deposit dynamics you mentioned as well as the current rate environment?

Sharon Yeshaya

Management

So first, let’s take NII. As we said, what we have been looking at is we thinking about it in terms of modeled client behavior. Obviously, March itself had a different modeled client behavior than we probably would have expected for other months within the quarter. But when we look ahead, we are currently not expecting expansion of the quarterly NII as we go forward. Now as that relates to the margin, a 26% margin, obviously, is still impacted by certain things, such as integration-related expenses. We mentioned also litigation and we continue to really invest in the model as we go – as we have and also as we go forward. All of that being said our eyes are still on the 30% goal that we have set forth and we will continue to achieve as we move through time to progress to those goals.

Operator

Operator

We will hear next from Glenn Schorr from Evercore.

Glenn Schorr

Analyst

Hello. Thanks. Maybe we could follow-up on that conversation. I’m just curious, you mentioned that interesting stat of 23% sitting in cash and cash equivalents, up from 18% historically. If we weave that into normalizing over time, but also deposits were down 3% and cost of funds is up a bunch. As we go through the year, do you anticipate the normalization of the cash component at the same time, deposits continue to come down and migration continues to be yield seeking, like can – I guess, my question with all that ramble is, can the margin get back into that range while we have these cash leaking and yield-seeking behavior is happening?

Sharon Yeshaya

Management

So I think that for us to predict exactly what the behavior will be. Obviously, if we think about what happened in March, that’s a very difficult thing to predict. But I think what you’re highlighting in your question, Glenn, as I parse out the very beginning of it, is right now, cash and cash equivalents are at a higher level, a higher level than we have ever seen historically. As we begin to see those assets be deployed into different types of products that ability and that advice will obviously be accretive. It will also help us as you see asset levels rise. So there is a pull/push factor as you think about those things. In addition to that, as we continue to aggregate assets, we will gain from scale, the more assets that we see, the more we will see in balances, the more that will probably help as you think about just what the cash balances are more broadly because assets are being attracted platform. And in addition to that, we will gain for the longer objectives of what that might mean for the margin and for the wealth management business more broadly.

James Gorman

Management

If I could just add and excuse my voice, I have a chest cold. Glenn, on the simple math to take the margin of that business from 26% to 28% is about $120 million. Obviously, we’re still absorbing some integration stuff relating to the platform that will be done this year. We had slightly higher reserves. We’ve been investing pretty aggressively in the business and, frankly, I think, prudent – appropriately, the payoff is the $110 billion, which is a net new asset organic growth of 10%. So I’ll take that any day long, the assets to sustain the building. So yes, we have a lot of levers to push that margin around a couple of percent points. That’s not, frankly, a source of great anxiety to me at this point. And I think you’ll see us probably push a few of those levers as we get through this year and certainly next year. So the trade-off is, I think we all want to keep investing for growth. We see a real window here. This $10 trillion target is for real. The tree in every 3 years is 300 – whatever it is, $330 million a year, $333 million, I guess. And starting off with $110 million, I think we have pretty good visibility to net new money. So it’s a balance. But as we get through this integration as it’s finally completed, some of those costs roll off. We will get a little tighter in the expense management in the wealth business. I know Andy and his team are already focused on that. So – and then the deposit stuff will – it’s kind of going to be what it’s going to be depending on where rates go and what the Fed does.

Glenn Schorr

Analyst

Appreciate that. And thank you for fixing my question. The follow-up I have a simpler on commercial real estate. Can you just help us just dimensionalize the portfolio? What exposure do you have? And how do we get comfortable that this is going to get that keeps on giving, like I’m sure there is details within the provision that you took that could help us? Thanks.

Sharon Yeshaya

Management

Absolutely. I think what’s important about that portfolio is that it is diversified, in addition to that, we have been reducing the exposure in the ISG direct CRE portfolio over the course of the last year or so. So obviously, we keep our eyes on it. As you know, CECL is a life-of-loan concept. And so as you see economic deterioration, you do need to account for that. And the same goes for what we’re seeing in the commercial real estate market. So I think that those are the two main points I would point you to is that it is diversified, and we have been continuing to reduce that direct exposure.

Operator

Operator

We will hear next from Ebrahim Poonawala from Bank of America.

Ebrahim Poonawala

Analyst

Good morning. I guess just first question, I wanted to follow-up, James, a comment you made about being expecting 2023 to end on a constructive note. I was wondering if you can elaborate on that just in terms of a lot of this is tied to macro. How do you think the economy paying off in terms of the Fed’s fight against inflation damage it does to the economy in the markets? And as you think about ending 2023, where do we think – where do you think we will be on all these fronts by the time the year ends?

James Gorman

Management

Well, our house call out for the markets went about flat from where they started at the beginning of the year, and they certainly support that. I think the two wildcards out there are geopolitical risk, which we can’t really handicap my gut is that the U.S.-China relations while having the moments tension remain overall stable through this year and global trade remains stable. The second risk, of course, is that the Fed’s actions doesn’t bring down inflation. Well, the evidence so far is it is bringing down inflation, but they are probably not done. I think it’s likely we will see at least one more and possibly two more rate increases. That gets you to sort of high 5%, 6% type interest rates, which is not shocking. And if we get through that, again, many people are calling for a modest recession, it might be, I don’t know, obviously, but got is, whether it’s a modest recession or we dodged that bullet. Sort of doesn’t matter that much. What really would matter is if inflation is not tamed, it has to go much higher than people are expecting. You go into a much deeper recession it’s certainly not a likely outcome at this point. So that’s why I said I think I used the words constructive. For Morgan Stanley, if the sort of green shoots we’re starting to see. Again, I don’t think they are a Q2-type event but back half of the year and next year in banking and underwriting, we just had a Global Risk Committee yesterday discussed some of the stuff and certainly the underwriting calendar, it looks like it’s picking up a little bit through the back half of the year. I think the wealth management, what Sharon pointed to, the 23% in cash like…

Ebrahim Poonawala

Analyst

No. I appreciate the color. And just as a follow-up, when we think about capital return in terms of one, the pace of buybacks, given the macro uncertainty, any perspective there? And just opportunistically, do you see this as creating opportunities inorganically M&A-wise for Morgan Stanley as we look forward?

James Gorman

Management

We’ve maintained – it’s a very good question. I’ll deal with sort of what the capital position is now and what the opportunities are for excess capital. On the capital position now, CET1 is running at 15.1%. We obviously have control over that dial to a large extent. So – and we have tilted conservative. I think it’s fair to say. I haven’t seen all the numbers, but I’m pretty sure we’re at the top or above all of our competitors set again, and we’ve been that way for quite a while. So on current capital requirements with the last stress test, we’re at 13.2%, I think or 33%, somewhere around there. So 15% is a very healthy buffer. But we’ve got a new stress test coming out. So many people feel that’s going to be a little tougher than what it was last year. It might be, and we’ve obviously got plenty of capital for it. So I don’t expect any issues whatsoever. And then we have Basel III coming out in, I think, sort of late May, June time period where – and again, that will be implemented probably 2025 that looks like earliest. So again, there is time for the banks to adjust their capital position. So we will have much better visibility as to what we’re dealing with by, say, July 1. And I – again, I don’t – I suspect it might drive some changes in how we run our balance sheet, but I don’t think it’s going to involve anything particularly draconian. Now given that, we like to maintain a healthy buffer. We have done, obviously, the deals we did in the last couple of years, E-Trade and Eaton Vance, which I just said I couldn’t be more happy with both the timing of…

Operator

Operator

We will move next to Steven Chubak from Wolfe Research.

Steven Chubak

Analyst

Hi, good morning. So I wanted to start off just unpacking the NNA lows that you saw in the quarter. I mean 10% is really an impressive result. The fee-based flows continue to lag brokerage. And just wanted to better understand what you see as a sustainable fee-based flow rate. And just as we try to evaluate the durability of 10%, how much of the quarterly inflows were from FRC where you’re clearly a destination of choice for some of those attriting advisers?

Sharon Yeshaya

Management

I’m going to try and remember all of your questions, Steve, in order. So if I forget one, just remind me. The first point on FRC, I’ll take first. In terms of the regionals, more broadly, as I mentioned in the prepared remarks, I believe we had about $90 billion that came in without any relationship to those regionals. And so that shows cases to you that’s well above the average that we’ve seen. So I think it just continues to show that the investments that we have made are really working as we move forward. So that’s sort of point number one. The second point that I mentioned, and I think you asked where are those assets coming from? It’s really – in this particular quarter was in that adviser-led space both from existing accounts and new clients. To me, what was most remarkable when I was going through the diligence materials really was what we’re seeing from clients. So the idea that we continue to be a destination of choice for our existing clients and attracting assets held away, again, speak to all the conversations that we’ve all had over the course of the last 7 years or so talking about investments to give our advisers more time to service their clients as we move forward. Then the final question that you asked around the fee-based flows actually a very strong fee-based flow number, to be honest, from our perspective in an environment where individuals – we think about it, cash and cash equivalents are high. You’re thinking about putting your money into managed kind of accounts associated with it from that fee-based concept, you’re unlikely to do that in a period of time where you think the cash and cash equivalents and safety might be what you’re looking for right now. And so that is, in fact, the dry powder that we have that over time could move into the fee-based assets. So I think it’s actually a strong number given the environment that we have on the backdrop.

Steven Chubak

Analyst

Really helpful color, Sharon. And just for my follow-up, with – on sweep deposits, those are now running below 4% of AUM. That’s historically been a strong support level for transactional cash within the advisory space broadly. I was hoping you can give some perspective on how we could think about where sweep CAT could potentially bottom and have you seen any continued mix shift into sweep or deposit pressures in April so far?

Sharon Yeshaya

Management

As it relates to April, I talked a little bit in one of the earlier questions about modeled client behavior. And that what we did see is that in March, we really deviated from some of that modeled client behavior. Now in April, we have been more in line with modeled client behavior. So that does speak to your point of maybe we are in a position where from a transactional patch level, we are there. But again, as James said, it is an uncertain environment. And so from that perspective, we will have to wait and see how we move through time from here.

Operator

Operator

Moving next to Brennan Hawken from UBS.

Brennan Hawken

Analyst

Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I’d actually have to follow-up on that last question from Steven. So April is more modeled April is typically a tax payment month, which is a headwind. So are you seeing – where is that cash getting funded from? Are you seeing some of the taxes – tax payments coming out of both sweep and the other higher cost deposit sources? Is it more biased to the higher cost? Could that provide some relief? And when we put all that into the mix and think about NII going forward, should we be thinking about stable NII we know it’s not growing, but funding this funding cost elevation maybe could lead to some downside. So curious how we should be thinking about that.

Sharon Yeshaya

Management

I think that your question in terms of April in terms of where it’s coming from the exact breakdown is challenging to see in terms of exactly where it’s coming from, from all of the deposits perspective because there is could, as you know, cash is fungible, so you could take something and then move it into a different security or a different asset. To parse that out, is challenging. I do think that what’s more important, as you highlight, is that it is tax season. And so to not see an acceleration is obviously one of the more optimistic signs that you are moving through more model client behavior. Now what it means from funding, we obviously have many funding different places. I don’t think that funding is concern, as you mentioned, it does matter from an NII perspective, but it will be a function of two things, Brennan. As you know, rate expectations have also changed since January. And so our NII forecast and predictions are based on models client behavior in terms of cash, sweep etcetera, and also where interest rates are and where the forward curve is for Fed bonds. And so as you begin to see if that changes, that could change your NII forecast. We are still, if you look at models client behavior, asset sensitive. And so from that perspective, I think that gives you a few different pieces to put together in terms of how to think about the forward look based on deferred assumptions.

Brennan Hawken

Analyst

Okay. Thanks very much. Obviously, a lot of uncertainty, so I appreciate that color. And then one more on the net new asset component. Sharon, you guys have an offer for – promotional offer and it’s tied to higher yielding cash alternatives. What percentage of the net new assets came into – from that promotion this quarter? In the past, you’ve spoken about how when you bring that cash in a majority of it stays in the system. Do you have any more granular statistics on what portion of that stays in the system? It’s obviously good that it comes into the system, but kind of curious when we think about stickiness and how much is hot money and how much is actually durable? Thanks.

Sharon Yeshaya

Management

So the best way to think about the stickiness within the system is actually NNA right, because you’re going to see the outflows would be a net negative to the NNA more broadly. And so the consistent growth over time, if you look at it all the way back even to when we saw promotional levels back, I remember we spoke about this in ‘18 and I think it was ‘17 and ‘18. In those early years, that was still seeing net new asset inflows over time. So, for me, the most important thing is, well, what’s the net, the net continues to be positive and continues to ramp higher. In terms of the CD exact offerings and what that would mean from NNA, it’s considered NNA if it’s brought out from outside of the firm. And again, what’s important here is that we continue to see more in the advisor-led space. And that over time, again, think about the channel migration from workplace into the advisor-led space. What’s important here is that when people begin to seed money into advisor-led, we actually see more money from assets held away. So, I know that doesn’t answer your question directly, but I think it’s important to highlight, as people begin to work with an advisor, what we said to you is 90% of the assets that then come are from assets held away outside the building. So, just again, another proof point that once they understand what the advisor has to offer, it helps aggregate new assets into our system.

Operator

Operator

We will hear next from Gerard Cassidy with RBC Capital Markets.

Gerard Cassidy

Analyst

Thank you. Good morning. Sharon, can you share with us, when you guys talked about, I think James said around 25% of your Wealth Management customers’ assets are in cash or cash equivalents, which is high, of course. What interest rate do you guys sense, meaning do rates at the fall 100 basis points or 200 basis points for that money to move back into more traditional assets?

Sharon Yeshaya

Management

So, I don’t actually know that it’s the absolute value – the rate level. And I will answer it in two different ways. First, you have to remember that the events in March didn’t make people – I mean, we all read the popular press and most individuals begin to think about what is the most risk-free asset, that being a U.S. treasuries. So, one should not be surprised if they begin to move assets into U.S. treasuries. So, I do think that it’s a function also of uncertainty and not just the absolute level of where interest rates are or aren’t. Now, as I have said, we have these moments that are opportunistic, both when you think about the corporate activity and then when you think about the individual activities, so both for ISG and in Wealth Management. And that was evidenced last August, last October and then earlier in January and February that when markets become calm that you begin to see movements into asset classes and further activity as evidenced by our self-directed channel as well. So, I don’t know that there is an absolute level of rates, but I would say it’s related to confidence in the system more broadly and a belief in asset levels being in a place that will bottom and then potentially will rise as we go forward.

James Gorman

Management

I totally agree with that. I think Gerard, if people can get a 4%-ish return in a very uncertain environment, that’s not a bad thing to have in your portfolio, at least for 25% of their portfolio. As they get better visibility, as we all get better visibility of when the Fed stops moving and did we go into this recession that some appearing or not or if it’s modest, then I think you will start seeing more engagement. I mean it’s just, we have all been through this. It’s human behavior. We have had a pretty significant shock to the system in the last few months, which thankfully the world kind of – the financial world got through, but could have turned sideways. And higher rates came at a time of increased uncertainty. So, it’s entirely rational that people would take advantage of higher rates and increased uncertainty by parking in cash, but they are not going to stay in cash at 4% forever. That’s not going to help.

Gerard Cassidy

Analyst

Thank you. I appreciate that. And then just as a follow-up question, Sharon, you talked about the credit, the provision and linking into commercial real estate. Of the total loan portfolio, what percentage of that is in commercial real estate mortgages? And are there any construction loans in that portfolio?

Sharon Yeshaya

Management

As it relates specifically to the construction loans, I don’t know about the exact construction loans that you might have. I am certain that somewhere there could be a construction loan. But more broadly, I think the absolute level, we do disclose from the ISG side around that $10 billion, and that was in our filings from last quarter.

Operator

Operator

Devin Ryan from JMP Securities.

Devin Ryan

Analyst

Thank you. Good morning. I just want to start just on market share opportunities that maybe are accelerating here. You touched on some on the call, but one of your peers highlighted your private banking in Europe, just on the heels of some of the banking stress or potentially even just opportunities where you are going to get paid more for committing capital when your capital is becoming more scarce in the system. So, just love to maybe think about some of the things that you are seeing just over the last month or so that might be sustained going forward.

Sharon Yeshaya

Management

On capital opportunities, in Europe. Sorry, could you repeat what’s the question?

Devin Ryan

Analyst

Yes. The question is just where there is opportunities to take market share kind of in the wake of the banking turmoil. So, one peer had highlighted private banking in Europe as one example. But just whether there is others as well here, just on the heels of the recent stress?

James Gorman

Management

Yes. Devin, let me have a go at that because that probably builds off the capital discussion and where we would invest. We do not have an appetite for private banking in Europe. In fact, we sold our Private Bank in Europe to Credit Suisse several years ago. It’s one of the first things I did, because we would had an unhappy experience. We had owned the business for 21 years, and we lost money for 20 years of them. And I kind of took a fairly simple view that if you lose 20 years out of 21 years, you have probably got to lose it. So, we got out, you need scale. And frankly, it’s not a good fit I believe, with the current regulatory structure that we operate under, so much more interested in the U.S. and Asia and some in Lat-Am. The U.S. business, it’s just going to be an asset gathering monster. To bring in $110 billion in one quarter and $1 trillion over the last 3 years, there aren’t many companies in the world that have a trillion assets under management. So, I think we have got to keep our eye on the prize here and not get distracted by going down some rabbit hole because somebody else is in stress, maybe somebody else is in stress because it’s not a very attractive rabbit hole when you get down inside it. We know what we have got here, and it’s a killer machine. Asia is growing nicely. Again, Lat-Am some, but the workplace conversion is a massive opportunity now that we are focused on. Obviously, we are tracking financial advisors from seeing somewhat of a safe harbor, I guess across the industry. In our organic flows, if you compare them to our traditional competitors, the warehouses or the online brokers, our organic flows, I think are on an annualized basis, significantly higher than the traditional players, and higher than anybody in the industry. So, that’s how we think about it, again, Asia more interesting, Europe not interesting, Lat-Am a little bit interesting and U.S. definitely interesting.

Devin Ryan

Analyst

Got it. Okay. Thank you. Helpful. Just a follow-up, it sounds like you are starting to see maybe a little bit better momentum with financial sponsor clients. I would love to maybe just touch on those specifically and kind of what the appetite is to do deals or to sell assets and kind of what the – you think the trigger point is to kind of engage them further?

Sharon Yeshaya

Management

Certainly, I mentioned is actually when I spoke at a February conference this year, which is that when you think about financial sponsors, they may be in a different position than what we would consider traditional M&A, i.e., they are faster to market. They are in a position where you might not have the same level of activity from a Board. And because of the size, you might have different regulatory restrictions. And so from that perspective, we would expect that they might be first before we see really traditional activity open up. And that is – that remains kind of the view that we have and also as the pipeline begins to build, that’s also what we are seeing. In order for that to move forward and become realized, it’s really about the opening of the markets in terms of the financing activity. As we have seen some of the backlogs clear, that’s clearly very helpful. But again, it’s about stabilization and it’s about confidence.

Operator

Operator

We will move next to Mike Mayo from Wells Fargo.

Mike Mayo

Analyst

Hi. What is going so right – what is going so right in Asia that it’s your third best quarter in an environment like this? And then what is going so wrong in investment management since you closed Eaton Vance, the first full quarter, it was second quarter ‘21, if I have that correctly. Investment management revenues are down almost one-fourth. So, shout out to certainly E*TRADE and wealth doing well. But in terms of investment management, like it just looks from the outside like Eaton Vance panning out the way you expected. But first, the positive on the Asia was going right and then the negative one, what’s not going right in the investment management?

Sharon Yeshaya

Management

Certainly. So, let’s take Asia first. What we saw over the course of the quarter was China reopening, obviously, supporting us from the equities side and perspective in terms of client engagement. And what’s going right also from Asia has been the – what we have a franchise that we have really built in Japan. And in an environment where interest rate dynamics change, such as what’s going on within Japan, that certainly helped us from the macro perspective and the macro business within fixed income. So, I think that we are – that’s very important and critical is that it speaks to the global perspective, and it speaks to our global franchise. Why that is important when you think about investment management, and I will tie the two together is that you have to invest more broadly to be able to create an environment of diversification. And so Asia might be asleep. Japan, for example, could be asleep for many years, and all of a sudden, Central Bank activity picks up, and you are there to support your clients with that global franchise. Think about investment management quite similarly. What we are doing is we continue to build a franchise where we are able to have diversified products that are there to capture our client assets. You highlighted what’s going on within the investment management. Well, asset levels are down tremendously. However, since we have purchased and we announced the deal associated with Eaton Vance. Look at Parametric, we have raised over $45 billion in that product alone, again, diversification of the portfolio, diversification of product to be there in a period of time where you see activity. That’s what we are trying to do and build.

James Gorman

Management

Yes. I mean I will just add, I wouldn’t frankly, render a judgment yet on the Eaton Vance deal. I think it’s a little soon through a challenging market environment. I would tell you, I am personally thrilled with it. And I am highly confident that 5 years from now, we are going to look back and be thrilled with a lot of people said that Smith Barney deal was a dumb idea. And a lot of people said, E*TRADE is a dumb idea. And a lot of people said we overpaid for Solium and these things have moments of sort of settling, if you will. It’s like good house its foundations have to settle. And in a very challenging environment, I think the business is holding up, right. So, I am very happy with that transaction, great people, great company, some fabulous brands. And I think Mike, if you come back and ask that questions in 3 years’ time, hopefully, you won’t reverse the questions. But maybe you will say what’s going right with Eaton Vance and asset management, and what’s going wrong in some other places. Because I am sure, as I have said in the rolling sense, you can’t always get what you want, given the environment, something might be working. But yes, I am pretty relaxed about that one.

Mike Mayo

Analyst

I appreciate the answer. Just a short follow-up, it looks like you are not getting any NII guide, or if you did, I have missed it, and we just want some help with our models here. If you want to kind of guide us in a certain direction, I mean clearly, funding costs have gone up in the industry.

James Gorman

Management

I mean super hard. I will be blunt. We sort of guided a little higher on growth in the first quarter and came in plus 1%, which I guess was better than most, but just super hard. So, let’s get through – I think let’s get through this quarter. We will learn a lot of taxes. And as Sharon said, it’s kind of the numbers have reverted back to what we are modeling, which is good. We will see that. We will see how much of this cash that’s moving. We will see whether there is further deposit outflows or not. I mean it’s just super hard to guide right now. So, I don’t think I know it’s sort of – I don’t know if it’s fair or not, but it makes your modeling harder, which I appreciate. But also I don’t want to give guidance that we don’t really have an intellectual basis or fact basis for doing it. It’s just too hard. We are not stressed about it, but that much guidance I will give you, but I just don’t want to put numbers on the sheet of paper at this point.

Operator

Operator

We will move next to Matt O’Connor from Deutsche Bank. Matt O’Connor: Good morning. Can you talk about the sustainability of the strong fixed income trading revenues. Obviously, on an absolute basis, very good, down from a really strong year ago level and benefited from rate volatility, but at the same time, advisory and DCM was sluggish. So, how do you think about this kind of not just 2Q, but the next several quarters in the kind of environment that we are in and maybe some improvement in IB? Thanks.

Sharon Yeshaya

Management

So, the – our business has done. I think management has done a phenomenal job in really transforming this business to be a client-centric model focused on velocity of assets, focused on supporting our clients. So, the deeper we have gotten into that, the more we have been able to grow our wallet share more broadly and we have been able to be in and around this 10% number. So, that’s clearly based on the activity that we have seen. Now to your point, should we see an opening up of markets could there be greater activity, that would also obviously support the wallet more broadly, but we would expect to be there to continue to gain our appropriate share of that client activity. Matt O’Connor: Okay. And then maybe just broadly speaking, like as you think about client brokerage in both fix and equity, like what’s your thought there in terms of committing capital kind of on an incremental basis, like providing more or less from here or not really any change?

Sharon Yeshaya

Management

We continued to invest in that business more broadly. You can see that even on the technology side. We are really proud of the equity franchise and business and the transformation that’s had for well over a decade being a market leader. Clearly, as we think about committing capital, it’s also, again, about our clients being active in that market as we see. And I highlighted this in my prepared remarks, we do see client balances increase. We have obviously been there to support our clients. And we are looking for the appropriate risk-adjusted return as we continue to invest in that business.

James Gorman

Management

Yes. I would just add, if you step back from this sort of over a 5-year view, firstly, just take hats off to the team led by Ted and Sam, Kelley Smith and then Jay Hallik and Jack [ph] in fixed income. It’s come a long way from, I think a 6% share. I think we troughed that. I don’t even know below after crisis might have been much lower, but sort of 6%-ish share per half of the last decade, and then steadily moved up to 10% and pretty stable. It’s kind of what we wanted. I mean – and on the equity side, you can buy share, for sure, more, but you want to be in the part of the prime brokerage business that we want to be in. We don’t want to be in the sort of the broker last resort. So – but if you step back from it and what you have really got is kind of an oligopoly type structure emerged out of the financial crisis where a smaller number of institutions have the global capability for global sales and trading, and we are now one of them. And that was probably not a given 10 years ago. It certainly wasn’t a given. And you have just seen, obviously, Credit Suisse has been merged and that business, lots of parts of that business. I suspect this appear relating to the trading side of the prime brokerage. So, our position gets stronger, not weaker. All that said, we are pretty careful about how much balance sheet we want to use to grow aggressively on the margin because we simply have good options in terms of wealth and asset management businesses. So, it’s a balancing act, but I think the team has done a great job, and I feel really good about where they landed the plane this quarter. tricky quarter, by the way, particularly in rates.

Operator

Operator

We will hear next from Jeremy Sigee from BNP.

Jeremy Sigee

Analyst

Thank you. Just quite a specific one actually. I thought comp costs were a bit heavy in wealth and in investment management. And you mentioned the deferred comp plans linked to investment performance. Is that heavier deferred comp cost? Is that something that stays with us throughout the year, or is it – does it move around? Is that a 1Q specific, or is that stuck with us for the rest of the year as well?

Sharon Yeshaya

Management

Jeremy, as you remember, that moves around with the investments. You will see both on the revenue line and the expense line. And so you should look at them together, and that’s why we have enhanced the disclosure so that you can think about them from both sides, understand both the margin and the comp ratio, both historically and as we move forward.

Jeremy Sigee

Analyst

That’s perfect. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s conference. Thank you everyone for participating. You may now disconnect.