Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) and Morgan Stanley are holding talks to collaborate their US retail banking operations, reported Reuters.

In October 2008, MUFG acquired a 21% stake in Morgan Stanley for $9bn. According to the report, they are negotiating through MUFG’s US retail unit Union Bank and Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.

San Francisco-based Union Bank has recently acquired branches and deposits from two failed smaller banks in the US.

Katsunori Nagayasu, president and CEO of MUFG, was quoted by the news agency as saying, that he expects to see something come out of it at least within a few months.

James Gorman, CEO of Morgan Stanley, said: “There are ways in which we are exploring for the future to leverage the platform that Union Bank has in providing some of these capabilities across the very, very large retail client base we have in the US.”