The traditional 9-to-5 banking day is officially dying, says Morgan Stanley execs

The financial industry is moving toward a world where markets never close, payments settle in real time and investors expect access to their money around the clock, according to Morgan Stanley executives, who say tokenization is accelerating a shift away from traditional banking hours.

Speaking during a panel discussion on digital assets, Betsy Graseck, Morgan Stanley's global head of banks and diversified finance research, argued that the move to tokenized assets is about far more than cryptocurrencies. Instead, she said, the focus is on rebuilding financial infrastructure for an always-on economy.

"I do phrase it as, look, this is the end of banker hours," Graseck said. "Your batch processing mentality is going to be a thing of the past."

The comment reflects a broader trend taking shape across financial markets. Banks, exchanges and custodians are investing in technology that allows assets to move 24 hours a day, seven days a week rather than only during business hours. While cryptocurrencies demonstrated that round-the-clock markets were possible, executives said the same infrastructure is increasingly being applied to traditional assets.

Morgan Stanley has steadily expanded its digital asset offerings over the past year. The firm recently began offering spot trading in bitcoin BTC $63,888.02, ether (ETH) and solana (SOL) through its E*TRADE platform while broadening access to cryptocurrency ETFs for wealth management clients. On the asset management side, Morgan Stanley launched its first spot bitcoin ETF earlier this year, followed this week by spot ether and solana ETFs, reflecting the firm's broader push to meet growing investor demand for digital asset investment products.

Graseck said investor demand is no longer centered solely on bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. Institutions are now looking at tokenization because it can improve cash mobility, increase collateral efficiency and create new investment opportunities.

"If you do not modernize your rails to enable yourself to participate as flows shift to digital asset rails, you're not positioning yourself for growth," she said.

She added that firms ignoring the trend risk falling behind as more financial activity migrates onto blockchain-based infrastructure.

The discussion highlighted how tokenization is already moving beyond theory. Morgan Stanley Wealth Management investment strategist Denny Galindo said tokenized money market funds and stocks have expanded rapidly this year and predicted they will introduce many investors to blockchain technology before they ever buy a cryptocurrency.

"I think we're going to see a lot of mainstream impact from something tokenized that people can buy that they used to have a hard time getting access to," Galindo said.

"I think that'll probably be the first way crypto hits the people that aren't just in it all the time and thinking about it all the time. It's going to be some kind of tokenized product."

Galindo also said wealth management clients are becoming more comfortable with digital assets as investment options continue to expand beyond bitcoin.

"A lot of people just stopped at bitcoin and said, 'I've got that covered. I don't want to get it more complicated,'" he said. As more exchange-traded funds and tokenized products become available, he expects investors to spend more time deciding how digital assets fit within broader portfolios.

Ali Wallace, Morgan Stanley Investment Management's global head of capital markets and ETF strategy, said product development is already evolving in response to investor demand. She pointed to growing interest in multi-currency digital asset ETFs as the next stage of innovation.

"There really is an interest for multi-currency, multi-product" ETFs, Wallace said, describing them as the next evolution of digital asset investment products.

Graseck expects the transition to take years rather than months. Still, she believes the direction is clear.

"There are investors who are very interested in being able to manage their funds on a 24/7 basis," she said. "The entirety of your investor base is not your domestic market."