According to the latest reports Morgan Stanley and Citigroup will have to wait for up to two years before they could have the full benefits of their brokerage joint venture as the complexity of merging information technology systems delays integration. These IT problems caused much disappointment with the 18,500 financial advisers of the new business who had expected to be able to sell products from both firms to their clients.

Earlier this month the new retail brokerage joint venture Morgan Stanley Smith Barney started its operations ahead of the schedule while originally it was planned to start in the Q3 of 2009. The date was moved up to reassure brokers and customers unsure about how they would fit into the combined unit.

It should be reminded that under the terms of the agreement Morgan Stanley is paying $2.75 billion to Citigroup, and owns 51 percent of the venture. The new venture will employ 18,500 advisers and generate $14 billion in revenue.

Now with the issues that emerged in the integration of the IT systems Morgan Stanley's financial advisers will not be able to access products from Citi's capital markets business, and vice-versa, for months.