Morgan Stanley to hire 400 people for trading, sales positions

NEW YORK: Financial services major Morgan Stanley is taking on board as many as 400 people for trading and sales positions, with an aim to revive profits in few segments, a media report said.

"Morgan Stanley is in a hiring push that will add as many as 400 trading and sales positions as it tries to revive profits in areas such as fixed-income trading, emerging markets and foreign exchange," the Wall Street Journal report said quoting people familiar with the situation.

The report said that Morgan Stanley Co-president Walid Chammah had said in an internal meeting last month that the hiring plan is a "strategy of rebalancing and repositioning" fixed-income and equities trading.

Morgan Stanley Chairman John Mack has said parts of the firm got too cautious following its near-death experience last year and has been scouring Wall Street looking for talent now.

Last year's crisis at Wall Street firms has caused a number of high-profile defections and Morgan Stanley has picked up key hires from JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank AG, UBS AG, Citigroup Inc and Credit Suisse Group AG.

Morgan Stanley has made about 200 hires so far, some with year-end compensation guarantees, the WSJ report said.

Further, it has appointed Jack DiMaio, a former Credit Suisse fixed-income head for North America, as its new global head of interest rate, credit and currency trading.

Morgan Stanley has also targeted UBS, hiring co-head of Latin America credit trading Al Chinappi and his team.