Morgan Stanley will cut 1,500 jobs worldwide in a bid for efficiency and in preparation for macro uncertainties in 2020, according to reports.
People familiar with the situation told Bloomberg that the cuts would account for 2.5% of the investment bank’s global workforce.
A Financial Times report said the reduction was more than the bank typically made at the end of the year and reflected the lack of clarity on the outlook for 2020 including the US/China trade war, the US presidential election, and Brexit.
“It’s a robust cost management,” a person familiar to the situation said. “We’re not making a big call that the environment is going to be much worse next year… [but] we’re cautious that it might not be better.”
The cuts would be mostly from the firm’s technology and operations divisions and other cuts would be spread across the bank, from investment banking to wealth management and trading, and would include some managing directors.
“Two of the people said that the bank is not cutting back on tech investments and that the cuts partly reflect the fact that some activities can now be done more efficiently,” the FT said.
Bloomberg reported that the cuts would also include senior executives in its currency and bond desks in New York and London amid an investigation into its currency-options desk.
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