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Compliance August 3, 2007
Morgan Stanley Settles Race Discrimination Suit
Morgan Stanley has agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit that accused the investment bank of discriminating against black and Latino employees in its retail brokerage division since 2002.
Reported by Adrien Martin
The suit was brought on behalf of about 1,200 black and Latino financial advisers and trainees employed at Morgan Stanley since October 12, 2002, Bloomberg reported.
According to the report, the five-year agreement will establish a “significant” fund to settle claims, the plaintiffs’ lawyers and Morgan Stanley said in a statement yesterday. The terms are confidential pending a court filing “in the near future,” the statement said.
The settlement called for Morgan Stanley to also change its policies on recruiting, account distribution and partnership arrangements, among others.
The agreement comes on the heels of another settlement of discrimination charges. The firm agreed to pay $46 million to settle a lawsuit by thousands of its female financial advisers, who claimed the firm discriminated by paying its female brokers less than their male counterparts. (See Morgan Stanley Settles Gender Discrimination Suit for $46M).