Morgan Stanley’s buyside businesses generated an underlying year-on-year pre-tax profits leap of 80% to $815 million in the second quarter of this year, beating the investment banking division profits of $785 million.

The buyside businesses comprise wealth and asset management. They produced a total of $784 million in pre-tax profits over the first quarter of this year, against banking's $1.12 billion. In the first quarter of 2012 they generated $453 million, against banking's depressed $138 million.