Morgan Stanley Will Shutter Banking Operations In Russia In Q1 Of 2020

Morgan Stanley will send the Russian central bank a notice that it’s going to formally close of all of its banking operations in the country in the first quarter of 2020, according to a report by Reuters.

The news came in the company’s annual report, as it had announced last year that it was doing the voluntary shutdown at some point.

The bank’s Russian arm said in the report that sanctions from the U.S. and EU made it too hard for Russian businesses to access international capital markets.

“(The) impact of changes in the economy on the future results of the bank’s business and its financial condition may turn out to be significant,” the report said of the planned shutdown.

The company did say it was going to continue to operate a consulting business in the country, which wouldn’t require a license.

While the firm’s Russian banking operations cool off, Morgan Stanley analysts predict healthcare to emerge as a key market for Apple.

Apple’s offerings in the healthcare space could generate $15 billion in sales by 2021, Morgan Stanley predicted, pointing to the rising adoption of the Apple Watch and its opportunity in the health space. That includes features like heart rate and step monitoring, and eventually possible tools like blood pressure and glucose monitoring.

Reports said at the high end Morgan Stanley analysts peg potential sales as high as $313 billion by 2027. Apple posted $266 billion in total revenues for 2018, reports noted.

“At the mid-point, Apple’s health efforts could result in ~$90 billion of annual revenue by 2027, roughly ~25 percent of its current revenues base,” analysts said in a report, pointing to a few key differentiators for Apple over top rivals Microsoft and Google.

One of the largest is privacy and customer trust, with analysts pointing to Apple’s recruitment of 400,000 in less than a year for a heart health study using Apple Watch. Reports noted that the successful recruitment effort displays customer trust in Apple using health data.