Morgan Stanley topped expectations in its quarterly earnings report released Wednesday morning. It’s one of many banks that have been reporting quarterly results over the last few days.

Some of them, including Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase, said that profits fell, thanks in part to still-elevated interest rates. But banks have another line of business that’s been raking it in over the last few months: investment banking.

A big way that investment bankers earn revenue is by helping corporations raise money.

“And that comes in two forms: either in the form of debt or equity,” said Drew Pascarella, who teaches finance at Cornell University.

Let’s start with debt: Many corporations are trying to take advantage of falling interest rates. That can help companies refinance their existing debt and expand.

Think things like “new factories, new hiring, new digital initiatives, that companies may have been waiting for because the money was too expensive a year or two ago,” said Pascarella.

Then, there’s equity — raising money through the stock market.

IPOs have been slow this year, noted Jay Ritter, a professor at the University of Florida. But companies that are already public have been issuing new equity, because the stock market has been rising.

“And companies are a lot more likely to issue equity when stock prices are high than when they’re low,” he said.

If that continues, Ritter expects that companies will keep tapping the stock market — and calling up their investment bankers to help them do it.

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