Morgan Stanley Queried by SEC Over ‘Multiple’ Accounting Errors

The SEC asked Morgan Stanley about “multiple significant deficiencies” in its financial reporting after the firm corrected accounting errors involving loan cash flows, income taxes and derivatives contracts.

Morgan Stanley said that while its Sarbanes-Oxley program identified defects that affected risk assessment and monitoring controls, the “overall design and operation of its control framework” was effective, according to letters between the company and regulator that were released today.

Deficiencies were caught in a “timely manner” and errors weren’t material, the New York-based firm said in the letters.

The correspondence cited passages that included Morgan Stanley’s 10-K annual report for 2012. The SEC said its review was completed in an Oct. 17 letter.

Wesley McDade, a spokesman for Morgan Stanley in New York, declined to comment on the filings.

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