Morgan Stanley Chops 1,000 Mortgage Jobs

Morgan Stanley announced 1,000 layoffs from its U.S. and U.K. residential mortgage businesses, joining the parade of institutions fleeing the troubled mortgage market.

The firm announced Wednesday that it's scaling back mortgage operations in the U.S. and shuttering its UK mortgage lending business, Advantage Home Loans. It plans to continue its Texas-based U.S. mortgage servicing unit, Saxon Mortgage Services, and continue to offer residential mortgage loans to its retail brokerage clients through Morgan Stanley Credit Corp.

"Given the continued dislocation in the mortgage markets, we have restructured our residential mortgage business to ensure we are appropriately positioned for the environment going forward," said Anthony Meola, chief operating officer of the U.S. residential business, in a statement.

Bloomberg News reported that Morgan Stanley also plans to cut 40 securitization jobs in Japan, citing unnamed sources. And The Wall Street Journal says the company is believed to be "selectively winnowing" low-producing managing directors from its investment bank.

The bank eliminated 900 jobs in credit and securitization businesses last year. In late January Morgan Stanley said it's cutting 1,000 jobs from asset management, wealth management and operations and support staff. It posted a $3.6 billion net loss for last year's fourth quarter including a $9.4 billion write-down of sub-prime mortgage-related assets - joining a long list of U.S. and European institutions stung by exposure to the residential mortgage market.