If you're a retail brokerage, most of your revenue (60%+) comes from net-interest. This means taking your clients money and lending it out long at 8% when your

If you're a retail brokerage, most of your revenue (60%+) comes from net-interest. This means taking your clients money and lending it out long at 8% when your short-term funding costs you 2%. For an established bank like MS, the net-interest is a drop in the bucket. The strategy here is about getting a young, educated, well-off retail base. The demographic trends are such that there is a multi-trillion inter-generational wealth transfer occurring over the next decade as the baby-boomers pass on their wealth to their millennial kids. You want to get in front of that.