Morgan Stanley to cut 2,000 more jobs

by Gill Montia

Story link: Morgan Stanley to cut 2,000 more jobs

Morgan Stanley is expected to cut around 2,000 jobs this month.

According to a report in The Times, the cull will focus on back-office roles and will not affect financial advisers, who are involved in the imminent launch of a joint venture with Citigroup.

The bank is in the process of acquiring a majority stake in the latter’s brokerage unit in a move that could create the world’s biggest wealth management business.

In November, Morgan Stanley announced plans to cut 10% of staff from its investment banking and sales and trading divisions.

The group, which employs around 44,000 people, is also restructuring its asset management business where it is cutting staff levels by 9%.

Last autumn, Morgan Stanley converted from an investment bank to a commercial bank, to gain access to a wider range of US Treasury support amid the chaos that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

It also secured a $9 billion injection of cash from Mitsubishi Financial Group, Japan’s largest bank.

The group posted a $2.2 billion loss in the fourth-quarter of 2008 and says budget cuts across the entire business aim to produce savings of $1.2 billion in 2009.