Morgan Stanley to cut up to 25 percent of fixed-income jobs

By Olivia Oran and Sudarshan Varadhan (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley plans to cut up to 25 percent of its fixed-income jobs, according to a person familiar with the matter. The workforce reduction will be across all regions and is set to take place in the next two weeks, the person said. The news was first reported by Bloomberg earlier on Monday. The Wall Street bank reported a 42 percent slide in bond trading in the third quarter, one of its worst performances since the financial crisis. Morgan Stanley Chief Executive James Gorman has been focusing on equities trading and - particularly - wealth management as profit drivers for the No. 6 U.S. bank by assets as stricter regulations and capital requirements make it more difficult to trade bonds. Ted Pick, who was in charge of the company's equities business, was picked by Gorman last month to oversee its entire trading business to facilitate better coordination between the firm's bond and equities desks. Morgan Stanley declined to comment. The company's shares, which have fallen 12.9 percent this year up to Friday's close, were up 2.1 percent in afternoon trading. (Reporting By Sudarshan Varadhan in Bengaluru and Olivia Oran in New York; Editing by Anil D'Silva)