Morgan Stanley / 1,600 layoffs to come

The Wall Street investment bank is cutting 1,600 staff, with about half the reductions coming from outside the US. The bank employs several thousand people in the City.

Chief executive James Gorman warned late last year that the investment banking industry still had “way too much capacity and compensation is way too high”.

The cuts will come from Morgan Stanley’s investment banking business, with more expensive senior employees among those most at risk.

Mr Gorman’s move to cut so early in the year is a sign of the pressure that investment banks remain under more than four years since the financial crisis.

A combination of Europe’s debt crisis, fresh financial regulations and a still lacklustre recovery in the US have made it harder for banks to return to the level of profits they enjoyed before the financial crisis.

Choosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor from

via Morgan Stanley to slash 1,600 staff – Telegraph.