Morgan Stanley has wasted little time in the New Year in carrying out some of the job cuts it proposed last month, letting go of a number of staff in its European equities division late last week, including its head of index trading.
The move comes after Morgan Stanley said in December that it would cut 1,600 positions across the company in early 2012 amid an industry wide decline in revenues. This is equivalent to around 2.6% of the 62,648 staff that the bank employed at the end of the third quarter.
The bank had said that the cuts would not be in client flow businesses, and would have less impact on areas such as the company's equities division, where its revenues have climbed this year. However, like many of its rivals, the bank has been forced to downsize the European equities operation, which has been impacted by subdued commissions in light of the ongoing eurozone crisis.
Among those to be let go is Tony Stewart, a managing director and head of index trading, according to three sources familiar with the situation. Stewart could not be reached for comment.
His departure follows that of Luc Francois, global head of the bank's equity derivatives business, in a move which was reported by Bloomberg earlier this month. The article cited a memo saying that Francois was moving to pursue other opportunities.
Francois had previously served as co-head of equity derivatives at Societe Generale, before joining Morgan Stanley as global co-head of equities alongside Ted Pick in 2008. In March last year, he was named head of equity derivatives, with Pick becoming sole head of equities.
In November, Morgan Stanley was named European equities house of the year by its peers in Financial News' awards for excellence in investment banking, narrowly beating previous winner Credit Suisse in the voting.
Matt Turner is a reporter for Financial News, where this story originally appeared. Write to him here.
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