It's been two years since Peter Brownie and Richard Wagner decided to leave a well established Australian franchise at ABN Amro, and try to establish the same at Morgan Stanley. The joint managing directors talk about their progress to date, and how the recent liquidity squeeze may affect market maneuvers in the future.Giles Parkinson: First of all, why do you like being an investment banker?Peter Brownie: For me it's being at the coal face of decision making, understanding what drives positions and strategies, it's the intensity and immediacy of capital markets and the real time nature of the work. You also work with dynamic, interesting people. Our staff, our competitors and the companies we work with and for are best of breed. Richard Wagner: I often speak to uni graduates about a career in investment banking and the thing that I say is that every day is challenging and every day is different.  One day you are a strategic consultant providing strategic advice, the next day you are working on a transaction - and that combines elements of being a lawyer, a management consultant, a tax adviser, a negotiator and accounting adviser. It's a fairly unique mix of diverse skills that on a day to day basis creates a very challenging, intellectually stimulating job.Giles Parkinson: What was behind the decision to leave ABN Amro and join Morgan Stanley?Peter Brownie: It's a once-in-a-career opportunity. Morgan Stanley is a quality global franchise. Half of the deals it does out of Australia are cross-border transactions. We think there is an opportunity to grow that. So I saw the combination of the power of a global footprint and the opportunity to build something out in Australia. Richard Wagner: Morgan Stanley is a true leader in global investment banking and being part of growing its Australian franchise was a great opportunity.Giles Parkinson: Morgan Stanley hadn't imposed itself on the local market, had it?Peter Brownie: It had done several transactions of a significant size over the last decade.Richard Wagner: Morgan Stanley has historically been focused on the largest transactions in the Australian market and it has been very successful on these over the past five years.  The current opportunity is to deepen and broaden its Australian focus beyond the top 100. Giles Parkinson: Why did Morgan Stanley take that route?Richard Wagner: When Morgan Stanley set up here in 1999, it wasn't appropriate then to go out and hire hundreds of bankers. Its equities, ECM and DCM had to grow in step with each other. What Morgan Stanley decided two years ago was that - getting to the point where it had critical mass in Australia -  it was time to go to the next stage, and accelerate the organic growth to catch up to the competitors who had purchased local businesses.Giles Parkinson: So what are your goals?.Richard Wagner: We don't publicise our internal goals. We were hired to continue to grow the franchise. The league tables are what they are and will go up and down,