Morgan Stanley's CEO let it slip just how many billions the bank is spending on tech (MS)

Morgan Stanley is spending around $4 billion annually to invest in technology, CEO James Gorman said on Tuesday.

That's around 40% of the firm's $10.3 billion expense budget excluding compensation costs in 2017. Still, it's not clear if the figure Gorman mentioned includes compensation for tech employees. As a percentage of overall expenses, Morgan Stanley could be devoting twice the amount to tech spend as rival Citi.

"I think what you're seeing is the challenges, we're spending $4 billion roughly, finding the right share of that $4 billion on investments for the future versus maintaining the ship we've got today," Gorman said, speaking at the Morgan Stanley US Financials Conference in New York.

Bringing electronic trading to its fixed income unit is a "major priority" for the bank's tech investment, Gorman said.

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Morgan Stanley has been putting a greater focus on technology at the firm. Rob Rooney, who previously oversaw the bank's operations in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, as well as its efforts in tech, was transitioned to New York to oversee technology exclusively.

The bank is also investing heavily in digital within its wealth-management business. It launched a robo adviser in late 2017, primarily geared at children of its existing clients.

Morgan Stanley held its annual CTO Innovation Summit in June, which helps it connect with vendors and startups on new nascent technology.

Automation, machine learning and artificial intelligence were among some of the innovation priorities explored at this year's event.