Morgan Stanley will slash 1,600 jobs in one of its most profitable businesses in the latest example of a Wall Street investment bank axing bankers to reduce expenses.

The job cuts amount to about 6 per cent of the total headcount in the bank’s institutional securities group, where Morgan Stanley’s bankers raise money for corporate lending and big mergers and acquisitions. About half of the 1,600 job cuts will be made in the US, with the other 800 made abroad, a spokeswoman said.

Last year the bank cut about 4,000 people, or 6 per cent of its total headcount.

Morgan Stanley will begin informing its employees about the job cuts this week. A large slice of the reduced positions announced yesterday will include highly paid senior bankers. – (Copyright the Financial Times Service 2013)