Morgan Stanley, which has been charged by the NASD for withholding emails, has denied that it intentionally hid communications. A source close to the bank said it was willing to settle the charges but the regulator wanted to reopen nearly 1200 arbitration cases spanning the past five years.

The NASD is suing Morgan Stanley for routinely failing to provide emails in arbitration proceedings and to regulators. Morgan Stanley has maintained the emails were lost when the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were destroyed in 2001 as the building housed the bank's email servers.