Morgan Stanley to ax 1,600 positions

• Tweet

NEW YORK, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- Banking giant Morgan Stanley said it would cut 800 jobs in the United States and 800 jobs abroad in a cost-cutting measure.

In October, the bank's Chief Executive Officer James Gorman said there was "way too much capacity and compensation is way too high," referring to the banking industry overall, the Financial Times reported Wednesday.

A spokeswoman for the bank this week said the job cuts would be in the bank's profitable institutional securities division, which includes corporate lending and work in mergers and acquisitions.

The spokeswoman also said that many of the cuts would affect senior positions, including managing directors and executive directors.

In October, Gorman said payroll expense "comes down because the amount of people in the business comes down."