According to its quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Morgan Stanley classified $78.2 billion of assets as “Level 3” at the end of February, up from $73.7 billion at the end of November.

In both periods, Morgan Stanley said these assets represented 15% of total assets, measured at fair value, or 7% of total assets.

The second-largest investment bank said it downgraded $2 billion of corporate and other debt from Level 2 to Level 3, driven mostly by loans and loan commitments for leveraged buyouts. The changes reflect “a reduction in recently executed transactions and market-price quotations for these instruments,” the bank said. (Reuters)