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Morgan Stanley eyes job cuts
Morgan Stanley, under fire to boost profit margins in its retail brokerage arm, is considering closing brokerage offices, laying off support staff and requiring some branch managers also to generate revenue as advisers under a cost-cutting drive, according to reports. Morgan Stanley, which controls the Morgan Stanley Smith Barney venture owned jointly with Citigroup, last week reduced the number of regions to 12 from 16, eliminating four manager jobs. Among the changes under discussion, they said, is a 10 per cent cut in the venture’s 120 branch “complexes”, which are groups of branch offices in a city or region that share compliance and administrative staff. Morgan Stanley spokeswoman Christine Jockle declined to comment.