Morgan Stanley (MS) hired 100 bankers in a bid to expand its private banking business as a weak economy and regulations make it more difficult to earn money from loans and investment banking, Bloomberg News reported.

The company hopes to sell more products such as jumbo mortgages and structured loans to Morgan Stanley Smith Barney clients, Bloomberg News reported without naming its sources. The company's private bank aims to triple loan balances to as much as $60 billion by the end of 2014.

"There is always this hidden opportunity of cross-sell," Steve Stelmach, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets in Arlington, Virginia, told Bloomberg News. "Merrill Lynch has been successful in offering mortgage products to their retail customers, so the precedent is there."

The company may boost its private banking staff to 500 by the end of next year.