Morgan Stanley scales back on food speculation

Last week, it was reported that Morgan Stanley – one of the top five global players in commodity speculation – is scaling back on it’s international commodities business. The reasons cited are declining revenues and increasing cost of regulatory compliance. 

The co-heads of Morgan Stanley's global commodities unit said that the decrease in revenues "is due to cyclical factors, and we firmly believe that the cycle will turn again in our favour in the future.”

Morgan Stanley’s retreat is a business decision based on profitability and like all business decisions if conditions become favourable again, they could easily return to commodities. As with other banks withdrawing from food speculation, we are not celebrating Morgan Stanley’s latest news. Only regulation can ensure that banks like Morgan Stanley are properly reined in from excessive speculation on food in a way that is permanent and binding. A small number of big banks should not be able to decide when they start or stop their excessive speculation, access to affordable food is just too important.

Discussions in the EU are taking place right now to decide whether firm action will be taken to regulate excessive food speculation, join our campaign and take action now.