Pity: Morgan Stanley Reduces Investment-Bank Pay to $5.2 Billion

Morgan Stanley (MS), the sixth-largest U.S. bank by assets, set aside $5.2 billion in the first nine months of 2012 to pay investment-bank employees, a 9 percent decline from a year earlier, sources told Bloomberg..... The ratio of compensation to revenue in the unit fell to 44.9 percent, compared with 48.4 percent in the same period a year earlier, when excluding accounting gains and losses related to the firm’s credit spreads. That’s still higher than Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM)’s investment bank. Compensation and benefits for all of Morgan Stanley totaled $12 billion in the first nine months, down 4 percent..... Pay expenses at the institutional-securities unit, which includes salaries, bonuses, benefits and the cost of deferred pay for bankers and traders, were $1.6 billion in the third quarter, an 8 percent increase from a year earlier, the New York-based company said today on its website……………....................................................................................................………………………………………………………………………………………....http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-18/morgan-stanley-reduces-investment-bank-pay-pool-to-5-2-billion.html