As one of its last steps in integrating the 2009 merger of the Morgan Stanley with Smith Barney brokerages into a single entity, the number of complexes in the organization will be cut from 118 to 86 and the ranks of non-producing managers will be slashed from 150 to 85.
The cuts were announced last week by an unnamed executive from MSSB. The branch network has already gone through several consolidation moves since the merger with the most recent being trimming the number of regions from 16 to 12.
The effect of this latest reorganization on individual mangers is still unclear, as the displaced executives will be eligible to move to openings in the lower managerial ranks, such as producing branch managers or to advisor roles.
According to MSSB spokesperson, “the strongest managers, demonstrated by performance” will prevail as the wirehouse consolidates about 40 more branches overall this year. Since the 2009 merger MSSB has trimmed about 250 branches.