Morgan Stanley to lay off about 2,000 employees to trim costs, source says

(Reuters) -Wall Street heavyweight Morgan Stanley is planning to lay off about 2,000 employees later this month, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.

The reduction of 2% to 3% of the company's workforce, excluding financial advisers, was aimed at improving operational efficiency, the person said, requesting anonymity.

Morgan Stanley had more than 80,000 employees worldwide at the end of 2024. The layoffs were not related to current market conditions, the source said.

The bank's move follows a string of job cuts by Wall Street lenders in recent weeks as they prepare for an uncertain economic environment, especially after President Donald Trump's newly announced tariffs against trading partners.

Rival Goldman Sachs has brought forward its annual performance review process and plans to trim its staffing by 3% to 5%.

Bank of America has eliminated 150 junior banker roles in its investment banking arm, Reuters reported earlier this month.

Bloomberg News first reported the development at Morgan Stanley earlier in the day.

Some of the upcoming job cuts at the lender are tied to performance, while others are the result of changes to locations where the bank bases some of its workers, Bloomberg News reported.

Bankers had expected a robust rebound in capital markets this year after Trump's election, but that optimism has so far failed to translate into activity as clients grapple with the president's ever-changing tariff threats.

Morgan Stanley Co-President Daniel Simkowitz said at a conference on Tuesday that new equity issues and mergers and acquisitions are "certainly a bit on pause, or the bar is high because of some of the policy uncertainties".

Still, the bank was adding "real headcount" at senior levels of its investment banking arm, Simkowitz said.

(Reporting by Arasu Kannagi Basil in Bengaluru and Tatiana Bautzer in New York; Editing by Pooja Desai)