Morgan Stanley is cutting hundreds of wealth-management positions, including some managing directors, in one of new Chief Executive Ted Pick’s first major moves since taking over six weeks ago, according to a source familiar with the bank.
The layoffs mark an effort by Morgan Stanley
MS,
to contain costs. They will impact less than 1% of the roughly 40,000 employees in the marquee investment bank’s wealth-management unit but won’t include key client-facing staff, the source said. Morgan Stanley will begin to notify affected employees as early as this week.
The move was initially reported Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal.
The job cuts are taking place under Pick, an insider at the bank who took over as CEO on Jan. 1, succeeding longtime leader James Gorman.
Morgan Stanley’s wealth-management revenue remained about flat in the fourth quarter at $6.65 billion, compared to $6.63 billion in the year-prior period.
The bank reported 80,006 employees as of Dec. 31, down from 80,710 in the third quarter.
Morgan Stanley’s stock was up fractionally on Wednesday. The stock is down 9.9% so far in 2024, compared to a 4.3% gain by the S&P 500
SPX.
Jonathan Swartz contributed to this report.