Morgan Stanley’s global head of prime brokerage, Edward Keller, is resigning from his role to deal with a personal health issue, the bank stated in an internal memo on Monday.The bank named Penny Novick and Kim Shaw as global co-heads of prime brokerage to succeed Mr. Keller. The pair are the first women Morgan Stanley has named to run prime brokerage globally. Mr. Keller is almost a 30-year veteran of Morgan Stanley who was promoted to his role in January 2020. The memo stated that Mr. Keller had told the bank about his wish to step down and that he would return to a senior role advising clients, reporting to the global co-heads of institutional equities. Prime brokers cater to trading clients such as hedge funds, executing their trades, lending them money, and helping introduce them to investors. “Ed has been as responsible as anyone for the growth of our Prime Brokerage business and by extension for the return of our Equities franchise to prominence,” as stated in the memo, signed by Alan Thomas, Gokul Laroia, and David Russell. The three are Morgan Stanley’s global co-heads of institutional equities.