NEW YORK, April 19 (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley's ( MS )

North America head of consumer and retail equity capital markets

(ECM) Tilli Dias Passi will leave the bank, according to people

familiar with the matter.

Passi is taking an indefinite break and is not immediately

joining a rival bank, the sources said, requesting anonymity as

the matter is confidential. Reuters could not immediately

determine what caused her departure.

New York-based Passi has been with Morgan Stanley ( MS ) for 18

years, according to her LinkedIn profile. Her departure from the

bank comes at a time when the market for initial public

offerings (IPO) is showing early signs of a rebound in activity

after stock market flotations dried up during most of 2022 and

2023.

Morgan Stanley ( MS ) declined to comment. Passi could not be

reached immediately for comment.

Over the past few years, some other senior IPO bankers have

left Morgan Stanley ( MS ) to pursue other opportunities. In 2022,

Lauren Cummings and Ashley MacNeill, who served as co-heads of

the technology ECM team in the Americas, left the bank to join

private equity firms Hellman & Friedman and Vista Equity

Partners respectively.