Michael J. Moore

A new generation of Wall Street bankers is about to get a raise, as firms open wallets to head off defections to investment funds and Silicon Valley.

Morgan Stanley agreed to pay $275 million to resolve a U.S. regulator’s claim the company misled investors in the sale of more than $2.5 billion of bonds backed by home loans.

After the Federal Reserve Bank of New York was said to have faulted the regulatory reports of some of the firm’s U.S. businesses last year, the bank dropped in Frankfurt trading.

UBS, Switzerland’s biggest bank, named former U.S. Senator George Mitchell chairman of a new advisory council for the firm’s business in the Americas.

Morgan Stanley will boost profitability as it pays brokers a smaller cut of revenue and the firm’s commodities business earns better returns following sales of two units, CEO James Gorman said.

Bank of America, which last month won approval to lift its dividend for the first time since the financial crisis, said it will suspend that increase and $4 billion of planned buybacks because of an error in its capital planning.

Wealthy investors remain bullish on the investing environment in 2014 and see the U.S. as the best place to put their money, according to a survey released today by Morgan Stanley.

The IRS has released guidance on issuing tax refunds to same-sex married couples in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision striking down the Defense of Marriage Act.

Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. led Wall Street banks in posting a collective 42% increase in equities-trading revenue in the second quarter, the largest jump in more than three years.

Morgan Stanley, owner of the world’s largest brokerage, reported a 66% earnings increase that beat analysts’ estimates as trading revenue jumped and wealth- management profit margins climbed.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said earnings doubled, beating analysts’ estimates on a surge in underwriting revenue and gains from the firm’s own investments.

Investors overreacted to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s comments that the central bank could reduce monthly bond purchases, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Lloyd C. Blankfein said.

Morgan Stanley has a plan to boost return on equity in fixed-income trading above its cost of equity after four of the five units failed to meet that metric last year, Chief Executive Officer James Gorman said.

Wall Street has contributed less than 2% of New York City’s job growth since the recession ended as cost-cutting efforts have led banks to replace fewer positions than other businesses.

Ken deRegt, a Morgan Stanley veteran called on to revamp risk-management and the fixed-income trading business after returning in February 2008, is leaving again to join investment firm Canarsie Capital Group.

Goldman Sachs has been “deficient” in linking compensation to company performance, Glass Lewis said in a report, which also opposed the re-election of compensation committee Chairman James A. Johnson. ISS said in a May 8 report that shareholders should vote for Johnson at the New York-based bank’s May 23 annual meeting.

Morgan Stanley reported profit that beat analysts’ estimates as pretax earnings from its retail brokerage, the world’s largest, rose to a record.

Goldman Sachs reported earnings that topped analysts’ estimates on a 63% gain in revenue from underwriting stocks and bonds.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. set aside $4.34 billion to pay employees in the first quarter, about 1 percent less than a year earlier, as the firm employed 400 fewer people.

Kaminsky, who was the cable television network’s capital markets editor, will work with Morgan Stanley’s financial advisors on client development.