MUFG to copy Morgan Stanley’s success in wealth management business

MITSUBISHI UFJ Financial Group Inc (MUFG) is trying to replicate the success of Morgan Stanley’s wealth management business. MUFG plans to expand a team of bankers serving rich clients. Morgan Stanley is providing training and product development support to MUFG, Japan’s largest lender. Akiko Matsubara, head of MUFG’s wealth management strategy division, said the lender may grow a recently created team dedicated to affluent clients to about 50 from 24. The group was set up in April with staff across Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya. Morgan Stanley’s wealth management business has become a stable earner, balancing off more volatile trading and investment banking. The Japanese bank’s push deeper into wealth management is a sign competition is heating up in a market that’s already fiercely contested.