Wall Street heavyweight Morgan Stanley is expected to fire around 2,000 employees later this month.
A 2% to 3% reduction in our workforce, excluding financial advisors, was intended to improve operational efficiency by requesting anonymity.
Morgan Stanley had over 80,000 employees worldwide at the end of 2024. The layoffs had nothing to do with current market conditions, sources said.
The bank's move follows a series of job openings by Wall Street lenders in recent weeks, in preparation for an uncertain economic environment, particularly after Trump's newly announced tariffs on trading partners.
Rival Goldman Sachs has raised an annual performance review process, with plans to cut staff by 3% to 5%.
Bank of America has eliminated the role of 150 junior bankers in the investment banking sector, Reuters reported earlier this month.
First reported by Bloomberg News Development at Morgan Stanley began at the beginning of the day.
According to Bloomberg News, some of the upcoming recruitment at lenders are linked to performance, but some are the result of changes in locations where banks are based on a portion of their workers.
Bankers were hoping for a robust rebound in the capital market this year after Trump's election, but that optimism has previously been unable to translate into activities as clients tackle the president's ever-changing tariff threat.
Morgan Stanley co-president Daniel Simkovitz said at a meeting Tuesday that the new stock issues, mergers and acquisitions are “high bars because they are certainly suspended or some of the policy uncertainties.”
Still, banks added “actual personnel” to the senior level in the investment banking sector, Simkowitz said.
