Mack to step down at a Morgan Stanley seen in transition

NEW YORK -- Morgan Stanley's incoming CEO will be facing a drastically different landscape on Wall Street from when John Mack took over in 2005.

James Gorman is poised to take over a bank that some say is still searching for direction after surviving a credit crisis that wiped out most of its competitors.

Mack, 64, will remain as chairman. Robert Kidder, lead director of Morgan Stanley, said in a statement that Mack told the board 18 months ago he wanted to step back from the CEO role when he turns 65 in November.

Morgan Stanley has been criticized in recent months under the leadership of Mack for being too conservative as the market stabilized and began to recover from the peak of the credit crisis last fall. The swing toward a more conservative business approach was in reaction to mounting losses from the bank's more aggressive investment strategy before the global economic meltdown that began in late 2007.

The New York-based bank lost more than $1.2 billion in the second quarter.

However, despite all its struggles, Morgan Stanley has remained in business while many of its other Wall Street brethren have failed or been sold to new parents to avoid collapse.

Lehman Brothers Holdings failed almost exactly a year ago, while Bear Stearns was sold off on the brink of collapse and Merrill Lynch found a new parent as well.