Morgan Stanley to buy digital transfer agent Vinyl Equity

Morgan Stanley is acquiring Vinyl Equity, a fintech that digitizes share transfer and shareholder recordkeeping. Vinyl will join Morgan Stanley at Work, adding transfer agency to its cap table and equity administration tools. Terms were not disclosed, though a spokesperson told Bloomberg integration would cost $65 million over a couple of years.

Why it matters: The deal gives the bank an in-house transfer agent for its private-to-public wealth platform, useful when companies go public.