Morgan Stanley to Buy Smith Barney From Citi

In recent months, Citigroup has received $45b in bailout funds as its entire business model has struggled. Morgan Stanley remains one of only two (Goldman is the other) remaining independent investment banks that are actually now commercial banks after they were given their Fed banking charters shortly after Lehman brothers declared bankruptcy. Now it looks like Morgan will buy 51% of Citi’s Smith Barney wealth management unit for about $3b to create the largest wealth management firm with 22,000 advisers. This is expected to be announced imminently.