(Corrects 10th paragraph to clarify that the local head of Goldman Sachs visited the TSE, not the local head of the TSE visited Goldman Sachs, and that the source of the information was the TSE. Restores Update 3 following correction of Update 2. Corrects spelling of 'Update' in headline.)
* Morgan Stanley CEO pays call on TSE's chief
* No foreign brokers made formal plea to halt trade after quake-TSE
* Some companies likely to delay earnings-TSE chief
* Reporting delay will mean delay in dividend payout-TSE (Rewrites headline, second paragraph)
By Tim Kelly
TOKYO, March 28 (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman paid a call to Tokyo Stock Exchange chief Atsushi Saito on Friday as tensions simmered over the urging by some foreign brokers that the bourse halt trading following Japan's devastating earthquake.
Saito said Gorman expressed his support for the Tokyo exchange, which continued trading despite an informal request for a temporary suspension from some foreign investment banks, whose identity has not been revealed, soon after the March 11 quake and tsunami.
The meeting, the first between the CEOs, came after Saito blasted those brokers as "selfish" in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, triggering a round of finger pointing in Japan's close-knit foreign banking community about who had called for the halt.
"If I had been speaking English I wouldn't have used the word selfish," Saito told Reuters in an interview in the executive suite where he entertained Gorman for about 30 minutes over a bottle of mineral water.
"The turmoil is past and it's not my intention to criticise."
For foreign banks, Japan represents a significant chunk of their overseas revenue, both from trading and underwriting. For Japan, the big U.S. and European financial firms are an important source of liquidity and capital.
Saito said the calls to close the exchange were driven by panic that set in after damaged nuclear reactors a little over 200 kilometres from Tokyo began spewing radiation.
The International Bankers Association issued a statement on March 15 that was meant to speak on behalf of major foreign financial firms doing business in Japan. It said banks were continuing to operate "business as usual".
Public relations officials of foreign banks have since issued individual statements to address the controversy.
The TSE said the head of Goldman Sachs' local unit, Masanori Mochida, visited Saito on Friday, and Goldman has said it supported the TSE's decision to stay open.
JPMorgan Chase & Co , Citigroup Inc , Bank of
America Merrill Lynch , Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank
Many of Tokyo's Western financial firms are still thinly staffed, with foreigners working at big Japanese brokerages out of town. The bars and restaurants they usually crowd are still relatively quiet.
Saito said he will welcome back the "fly-jin", a play on the Japanese word for foreigner, "gaijin", and that in the face of impending catastrophe, their decision to flee was understandable.
Even as Japan looks to turn the corner on the crisis, the Tokyo bourse still faces difficulties in returning to normal.
Some Japanese companies will likely be late in announcing full-year earnings as they struggle to compile accounts for the business year ending March 31, Saito said.
That delay will be more widespread than just firms in the worst affected areas, Saito said, because companies throughout Japan, such as Toyota Motor , have been hampered by a breakdown in supply chains. Late earnings releases will mean that companies will also be late in paying dividends.
Toyota said no decision had been made regarding its latest earnings release, but rival Honda announced on Monday that it was considering a delay in releasing results for the fourth quarter.
(Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Edwina Gibbs, Nathan Layne and Edmund Klamann)