Client-facing
staff at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management - will not be affected by the
latest round of cuts to hit the bank, a person familiar with the
situation said.

The Wall Street-listed firm provides wealth management services in regions including Asia-Pacific. 

Morgan Stanley
is to reduce headcount at its institutional securities business by 6
per cent, or around 1,600 employees. Around 50 per cent of the job cuts
will be made in the US, with the rest falling internationally. They will
affect all levels of employees but focus on senior managers.

While no brokers within Morgan Stanley Wealth Management will lose
their jobs as a result of the cuts, the unit will be affected to the
extent that headcount is reduced among back-office functions across the
bank – as some cuts will be made to infrastructure and support roles.

The bank declined to comment on the matter.

The decision to trim headcount further at Morgan Stanley follows some 4,000 job losses at the firm last year, according to the Financial Times.
However, the firm is not alone in making big staff reductions and
cutting costs – especially within investment banking – due to the sudden
turn in market conditions that occurred following the financial crisis.
UBS is making sharp job cuts focused on fixed income, while it emerged
in December that Citigroup is slashing some 11,000 positions.

Across its business, Morgan Stanley reported net revenues of $5.3
billion for the third quarter last year, down from $9.8 billion a year
earlier.

Wealth management results

For Q3 last year, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management reported $239
million in pre-tax income from continuing operations for the third
quarter of the year, down from $356 million for the same period in 2011,
representing a year-on-year decline of $117 million. The unit, which
was rebranded recently from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, is at the
center of chief executive James Gorman’s plans to make the firm less
reliant on trading revenues.