Morgan Stanley said Thursday that is acquiring discount brokerage E-Trade Financial Corp. in an all-stock deal valued at $13 billion that is the biggest for a major U.S. bank since the 2008 financial crisis.
The news prompted talk of Morgan Stanley’s status as a systemically important financial institution that is subject to Financial Stability Oversight Council rules, an entity established under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. That legislation was put in place to prevent another crisis that would threaten the health of the U.S. financial system and sought to stop banks from growing “too big to fail.”
