The CEO has big ambitions for the asset management arm of the business.

The chief executive of Morgan Stanley wants his firm’s asset management arm to reach $1 trillion of client assets, which would mean more than doubling from the figure ($469 billion) it had at the end of March.

"As we all know, transactions in this space are complicated, back to the cultural issues. But we can do a number of fill-ins," James Gorman was quoted by Bloomberg as saying. Asset management is “one of the most important growth vehicles we have as a firm right now. I’m very excited about it."

Morgan Stanley’s business is smaller than those at rivals Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, which both have more than $1 trillion.

The bank had more than $600 billion in assets under management in 2008. After the financial crisis, Morgan Stanley sold its retail asset management business, which included Van Kampen Investments, acquired in 1996. “In hindsight, I’m not sure that was a great idea," Gorman had said in a Bloomberg Markets interview this year.

In wealth management terms, meanwhile, Morgan Stanley is second only to UBS in AuM terms, as reported by Scorpio Partnership in its annual survey of the sector.