Morgan Stanley announces London job losses

by Gill Montia

Story link: Morgan Stanley announces London job losses

Morgan Stanley is reducing staff by 300 worldwide, with jobs set to go in the bank’s credit-related operations, in London.

The staff involved work in the areas of bonds backed by mortgage payments and loans made to finance leveraged buyouts.

Earlier this month Morgan Stanley shed 600 post from its mortgage origination business and the current round of job losses will see 300 jobs cut in the US, with the remainder across Europe and Asia.

It is understood that between 40 and 60 positions will go at Morgan Stanley’s office in London.

The news follows a 70% reduction in third-quarter profit at the bank’s investment banking division, to $296 million.

The result reflects a $1.64 billion writedown on the value of leveraged loans and collateralised debt obligations.

In addition, the group’s retail bank, which operates under the Chase brand, recorded a 14% decrease in profit, to $2.21 billion.

However, net income increased slightly in the third-quarter, to $3.4 billion, as compared with $3.3 billion in the same quarter of 2006.

The results do at least compare favourably with Citigroup, which this week reported a 57% decrease in third-quarter profit, having written down $6.5 billion, largely as a result of the US sub-prime mortgage crisis.