Morgan Stanley Smith Barney

The investment banking company Salomon Smith Barney was created in 1997 by the merger of Smith Barney with Salomon Brothers.

Smith Barney’s foundations date to 1938 when Charles D. Barney & Co. (established in 1873), and Edward B. Smith, (founded in 1892), merged into one retail brokerage company. In the late 1980s, Smith Barney was owned by Primerica Financial Services which were acquired by Commercial Credit in 1988. In addition to Primerica in 1992, Commercial Credit purchased nearly one third of Travelers Insurance. In 1993, the structure bought Shearson from American Express. During the same year, all companies were united under the name of Travelers Group Inc., and its retail brokerage division kept the Smith Barney trade name.

In 1997, the Travelers Group also became the owner of Salomon Inc., which was the parent company of one of the oldest and most profitable investment banks - Salomon Brothers Inc., founded in 1910 by Arthur Herbert, and Percy Salomon. Travelers merged Smith Barney with Salomon Inc, creating Salomon Smith Barney. In 1998, Travelers merged with Citicorp and Citigroup was born to become the most powerful financial service company in the world. Salomon Smith Barney was also merged into Citigroup, as its investment banking operation. In the early 2000s, Citigroup changed the name Salomon Smith Barney to "Citigroup Global Markets Inc."

In the end of 2008, Citigroup registered huge losses from its banking activities over the financial crisis and needed the assistance of the United States government in order to survive. Citigroup decided to shut down some operations and sell others. Consequently in January 2009, Citigroup sold 51% of its Smith Barney shares to Morgan Stanley. Smith Barney’s brokerage services then merged with the Global Wealth Management Group of Morgan Stanley to create Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. At the time, Morgan Stanley itself was also hurting by the financial crisis, but was able to secure the deal through the help of investments from the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, in exchange for 21% of their shares. In September 2009, Citigroup decided to sell all their remaining shares to Morgan Stanley.

Today, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney has a total of 100 000 employees with over 18 000 brokers and financial advisors, and more than 1 000 office locations all over the world. It administers 1,7 trillions in US dollars of assets including a wide-range of individual investors, small and medium business, non-profit organizations and foundations to very large corporations.

The Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC division’s main areas of operations are investment advice and financial brokerage. They are registered with the Securities Exchange Commission. The company’s headquarters address is registered at 390 Greenwich Street 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10013, United States.


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