The Weekly Chu: Takeaways from Robinhood NDR with CFO Verma

Research evidence excerpt

The Weekly Chu: Takeaways from Robinhood NDR with CFO Verma

JuneJune 28,28, 20262026

activities at the bank, something which MS has prioritized following its decision to fund $100B of trading assets

(see our recent note following meetings with the co-heads of Markets). In this context the appropriate benchmark

is to compare the 3.6% deposit cost versus the cost of funding in wholesale markets. So long as that tradeoff is

accretive / allows for trading activities to be funded at a lower cost, that is a sensible tradeoff for MS.

Bottom Line: We believe these actions from MS are likely attributable to idiosyncratic factors (MS’s efforts to fund

more activities at the bank) and the specific $250k threshold represents cash that is earmarked for investment (versus

transaction cash). There is no reason to believe this was in response to 1) intensifying cash sorting pressures; 2)

regulatory / legal pressures given some outstanding litigation tied to advisory sweep cash; or 3) the ongoing debate

surrounding broker’s ability to monetize idle sweep cash in an Agentic AI / tokenized world.

Speaking of both Morgan Stanley and the impact of AI on the Wealth space, we continued to add more speakers to our

Nov. Wealth Symposium including Jeff McMillan, Morgan Stanley’s former head of AI Strategy, and Anders Jones, CEO

and co-founder of Facet Wealth. Given the significant debate surrounding both AI risk and opportunities in the Wealth

space we are planning to host multiple panels on the topic at our Nov. event, and having heard both of them speak on

this topic at a recent E&Y-hosted panel, they will have great insights to share on the subject. The full list of confirmed

speakers can be found on Slide 8, and we are hoping to finalize the agenda in the next few weeks so stay tuned. To