Morgan Stanley, the US firm, is to cut around 1,600 jobs across all divisions, including wealth management roles, the firm said yesterday.

Morgan Stanley, the US firm, is to cut around 1,600 jobs across all divisions, including wealth management roles, the firm said yesterday.

The Wall Street firm had a total of 62,648 staff at the end of September.

“As we conduct our year-end performance management process and evaluate the right size of the franchise for 2012, we anticipate the elimination of approximately 1,600 positions across the firm globally impacting all job levels – to take place early in the first quarter of 2012,” according to a statement emailed to this publication by the firm.

No financial advisors at Morgan Stanley’s Smith Barney operation – its joint venture with Citigroup – will be affected by the cuts, the firm said. Morgan Stanley has previously announced it will shed at least 300 low-producing brokers at this side of its business.

In October, Morgan Stanley reported income of $2.2 billion for the third quarter ended September 30, down sharply from income of $314 million a year earlier.

The wealth management side of the business has shown robust results. For example, its global wealth management group delivered net revenues of $3.3 billion, with net new assets for the quarter of $15.5 billion, a record since the inception of the MSSB joint venture and net flows in fee-based accounts of $10.1 billion. The quarter’s pre-tax margin widened to 11 per cent from 9 per cent a year ago.