The time series chart in the top right corner below shows just how miserable the year has been for Morgan Stanley. Over the trailing twelve months, relative to its peers comprising some 260 financial service firms, its reputation rank (in blue) never reached above the 50th percentile. While its current reputation value volatility over the past three months is less than over the past year, the vital signs chart shows that relative to its peers the volatility has crept up from the 66th to the 70th percentile. More worrisome for the firm's stakeholders are that the forward-looking trend indicators (direction of change) are all negative which may explain both the high level of volatility and the most recent steep dive in the company's return on equity relative to peers.
For context, compare Morgan Stanley to one its better known peers, JPMorgan Chase (JPM), that has been in the news recently. Currently also facing a reputational challenge of some significance, JPMorgan Chase's issues are new and follow a period of low volatility (for this sector) ranking in the 16th percentile relative to peers. As a result, although JPM's direction of stability of its reputation rank is more negative than MS, its current reputational volatility is about the same (72nd versus 70th percentile), its reputational rank is still much higher (48th vs 24th percentile), and therefore its return on equity is greater.
