Morgan Stanley's teenage star: 'I understood banking within a week'

Matthew Robson, the schoolboy who became an overnight sensation during a work experience stint at Morgan Stanley, said it took him only a week to "understand banking".

The 15-year-old became a surprise hit at the financial services provider after writing a research paper on the way teenagers view media such as the internet, mobile phones and Twitter.

He was on an internship when he was asked to write about how his friends used the internet, mobile phones and games consoles.

Senior analysts at the investment bank were so impressed by his clear and "thought provoking" piece of work that they decided to publish it.

However, the youngster from south London, took the accolade in his stride, saying that his view were typical of people his age.

Matthew told The Times: "Most teens would say the same things. We talk about this kind of thing at school quite a lot. Though the way we talk about it you probably wouldn't understand it."

Describing his two-week internship at the bank's offices in London's Canary Wharf, he added: "The first day was quite scary. But it was really interesting. By the second week I felt I understood what a bank did."

Edward Hill-Wood, from Morgan Stanley's European media team, said the response from clients was instant, with six times the normal response to their standard research.

"We've had dozens and dozens of fund managers, and several CEOs, emailing and calling," he said.

The document was even discussed at the Allen & Co Sun Valley conference in Idaho, which brings together business leaders, political figures, philanthropists and media executives.

Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Tony Blair and Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have all attended the conference in the past.

His three-page report broke down the different mediums into radio, television, newspapers, gaming, internet, viral marketing, music, cinema, mobile phones and directories.

Matthew said teenagers rarely listened to regular radio because they preferred stations without the adverts and could stream their own choice of music through services such as last.fm.

He said teenagers favoured the social networking site Facebook over Twitter, because it was a better way of keeping in touch with more people.

"It's aimed at adults," he said. "Stephen Fry is not particularly cool. Also, for the cost of one tweet you could send quite a few text messages."

He added: "Teenagers do not use Twitter. They realise that no one is viewing their profile, so their 'tweets' are pointless."

His message runs counter to conventional thinking that Twitter is the latest and increasingly popular method of communication online.

Matthew said teenagers increasingly watched television when they wanted – because of the advent of BBC iPlayer, Virgin Media and Sky – and hardly ever bought newspapers.

"Teenagers are very reluctant to pay for a newspaper, hence the popularity of freesheets such as The Metro," he wrote.

"No teenager I know of regularly reads a newspaper, as most do not have the time and cannot be bothered to read pages and pages of text."

The teenager said young people still favoured the cinema, for the experience rather than watching a particular film, while virtually no young people would pay for music.

"They are very reluctant to pay for it (most never having bought a CD) and a large majority (8/10) downloading it illegally from file sharing sites."

He said teenagers found online advertising "extremely annoying and pointless" and tended to ignore traditional billboard advertising.

The modest youngster said he could not take all the credit for his report, adding: "I texted a few friends to get ideas."

Matthew said he was now considering a career in investment banking.