UBS and Morgan Stanley are physically separating their capital markets bankers from their traders and salesmen for compliance purposes. UBS recently erected glass walls to separate its high-grade and high-yield capital markets originators from their trading counterparts in its Stamford, Conn., headquarters to crystallize the delineation between the groups. An official at UBS explained capital markets bankers have access to private information such as merger and acquisition plans, and the glass walls are meant to prevent salesmen and traders from wandering into the capital markets areas and gaining access to potentially market-sensitive information.
In a similar effort, Morgan Stanley's debt capital markets team, which had been separated by a wall for some time, has now been moved to a completely different floor from its fixed-income sales and trading force. Mark Lake, spokesman, added employees' passes only allow entrance to pre-approved floors which further confines the group. Its research analysts and strategists are also now separated by a glass wall from salesmen and traders.