One of the leading financial institutions, Morgan Stanley, is reportedly exploring the possibility of expanding bitcoin fund (ETF) sales by allowing its approximately 15,000 brokers to actively recommend bitcoin funds to their clients.
AdvisorHub reports that this potential move comes as the company is looking to capitalize on the growing demand for #cryptocurrency investments.
Morgan Stanley currently offers #bitcoin #ETF funds on an opt-out basis. This means that clients must contact their advisor on their own and express interest in investing.
By actively recommending these products to advisors, the firm can potentially expand its client base, but it will also have new responsibilities.
Morgan Stanley is currently developing certain safeguards, or "guardrails," for shopping by invitation, the report said, citing two senior executives familiar with the matter.
Those measures include risk tolerance requirements, allocation limits and trading frequency.
The executives did not give a specific timeline for when the company would implement the changes.
Morgan Stanley's approach is similar to that of its peers.
Other big banks, such as Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Wells Fargo, introduced bitcoin ETFs shortly after regulatory approval in January.
However, these banks have also restricted access to unsolicited purchases, in some cases only for ultra-wealthy clients.
Merrill Lynch, for example, has set a minimum asset size of $10 million for clients looking to purchase bitcoin ETF funds.
In January, the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved bitcoin ETF applications from 11 companies, including BlackRock, ARC Investments, Fidelity, Invesco and VanEck.
However, not all of these companies are offering bitcoin ETFs to investors.
Some financial institutions, such as Raymond James Financial and Vanguard, have decided not to offer cryptocurrency products, citing concerns about their suitability for long-term portfolios.
However, there has been no official word on this.
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