The job cutting program is part of a strategy by chief executive officer James Gorman to reduce $1.4bn of annual expenses by 2014.
New regulations, which have imposed ban on proprietary trading and forced banks to shore up huge base capital, have also forced the lender to exit businesses and cut jobs.
The current round of nearly 6% job cuts will be implemented in Morgan Stanley’s institutional securities unit, including sales, trading and investment banking, as well as support staff working in technology, according to media reports.
The bank will slash half of its staff in US mainly senior employees, and the total cuts represent less than 3% of its entire estimated workforce at the end of 2013.
The New York based lender, which employs 57,726 employees as of 30 September 2012, has already reduced 4,200 jobs by the end of first nine months of the last year.
Trading in 43 nations, Morgan Stanley operates 1,200 offices and offers numerous investment banking, securities, investment management and wealth management services.
