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Investment banking is an important constituent of the financial market. As financial institutions, banks have an irreplaceable part in the functioning of the world's economies. Together with fiscal documents and financial markets they constitute the fundaments of the financial system. The financial market is a complicated system of interconnected relations of particular segments of the market, and investment banking is one such part. Its existence makes it possible to shift the savings of financial resources from saving subjects to ones in deficit by means of mediatory activities, which is performed with the help of various kinds of financial instruments, which are called investment instruments. The mediatory function of investment banking is a basic feature which makes a distinction between investment and commercial banking. Investment banks are main mediators that place released resources (savings) into the stock market. As is well known from the inherent laws of economy, the role of investments is crucial for a healthy circulation and functioning of the state economy. Without them the steady economic growth would be impossible. Due to these reasons I decided to analyse investment banking: its development and economic context, as well as the legal basis of these institutions and their activities...

This thesis describes the post-war development of the Czechoslovak National Bank from 1945 to 1958, when it became a monobank. In the first part of the paper a study is provided on the state of the banking sector and the whole economy after the Second World War. Following is an analysis of impact of gradual translation from mixed economy to centralized model of sovietised economy on the Central bank of Czechoslovakia and later on the Czechoslovak State Bank. Firstly, the commercial banks were nationalized in compliance with decrees of President Edvard Beneš. The National bank was transferred into state ownership as well in 1948, concluding the banking concentration process. Two years later, Czechoslovak state bank emerged and took over the obligations of the now-defunct Central bank as well as of the remaining commercial banks. Competences of the State bank further expanded until year 1958, when it incorporated agenda of the Investment bank, began offering long-term loans and finally became a monobank.

The main task of the diploma thesis is an analysis of financial performance and position of Morgan Stanley during several successive periods before and during the subprime financial crisis. Through the analysis of trends in key items, it also demonstrates strong cyclicality of financial performance and position of the investment bank. The first chapter deals with history and key divisions of the Company. The following chapter generally discusses selected phenomena, which, as per the author's view, significantly influenced industry-wide record-breaking performance during the period before the subprime crisis, and which substantially determined Morgan Stanley's risk profile and performance's corrections later during the Crisis. The core part of the Thesis is conceived as an analysis of financial performance and position of Morgan Stanley during the selected periods. The analysis of pre-crisis period until 2006 in the third chapter demonstrates growth of activities lying behind the unprecedented profitability of the Institution. The following fourth chapter analyzes deteriorating financial performance during the subprime crisis and indicates crucial strategy changes, implemented by the Company at the end of 2008. Effects of the strategic changes and challenges of the future development of the Institution are discussed in the last chapter. Additionally, the Thesis includes annexes, which further deal with selected topics and their general relations to investments banks and two annexes which compare Morgan Stanley with its nearest peers during specific periods.