Monday's Headlines: Thousands of Wirehouse Reps to Get Cut

Big Four Financial Advisors: Pack your bags. Consultancy Cerulli Associates expects that the number of advisors at the four biggest wirehouses will drop by 6,800 over the next five years, following the current trend of departures on lower assets managed and a push for higher profit margins, according to an Investment News story. Between 2007 and 2010, the number of advisors employed by MSSB, BofA, UBS and Wells Fargo fell from 56,901 to 50,742. Cerulli expects only about 20 percent of those advisors departing in coming years will leave voluntarily.

New programs are already in place to narrow the advisor pool. In an effort to nearly double its profits, Morgan Stanley last week changed its advisor compensation grid, raising the penalty box threshold from $250,000 to $300,000. Those who don't meet the new targets will see their payouts drop to 20 percent. Cerulli associate Scott Smith explained, "The wirehouses see themselves better off with one $1 million producer than four $250,000 producers."

Other News:

MF Global filed for bankruptcy today, shortly after it was suspended from trading and a possible partial sale to Interactive Brokers fell through. [DealBook]

Chi-X Australia, the country's first foreign-owned stock exchange operator in 150 years, opened for trading Monday. [NY Times]

The SEC pushed back the deadline for back-office licenses for new hires to April 14. [Financial News]

Barclays's Q3 profit rose 5 percent, helped by fewer bad loans and UK consumer unit gains. [The Telegraph]

Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext have until Nov. 17 to remedy EU concerns. [Businessweek]

TMX Group supports a $3.8 billion buyout deal from Maple Group. [DealBook]

A computer glitch caused the NYSE Web site to generate incorrect equity prices Saturday. [Bloomberg]

Private equity firm CVC Capital made a $6.5 billion offer for the insurance unit of RBS. [Sunday Mail]

China named new financial regulators. [Financial Times]