Morgan Stanley, the New York based bank has sent memos to employees refurnishing its struggling fixed income division. The memo replaces two co-heads of the division with the head of its stock-trading desk.
The Wall Street firm has named Sam Kellie-Smith as head of Fixed Income and Commodities. Prior to this assignment, he has served as head of equity trading.
Robert Rooney as co-head of fixed income has been moved to a new role as chief executive of Morgan Stanley International and head of Europe. At the same time, Michael Heaney retires from the company after serving three decades in a row, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) trading is a part of the business that has been particularly hard hit this year across Wall Street. Morgan Stanley has just cut 25% of its workforce in FICC.
The new FICC boss, Kellie-Smith is a Morgan Stanley veteran. He has joined the bank in 1997 as a derivatives trader in London. Prior to that, he has initiated his career in the fixed-income division of Swiss Bank Corp. Since his appointment in Morgan Stanley, he has held senior roles in the firm's Hong Kong and New York portions, reports Business Insider.
Ted Pick, of the bank's equities trading unit, has been tasked by Gorman last year to oversee its entire trading business. Under Pick and recently promoted president Colm Kelleher, the bank is reshuffling key equities executives in fixed income segment as it tries to facilitate better coordination between the two units, reports Reuters.
However, the moves are the latest ripples following two other significant management changes. First one is the Edward Pick's promotion to head of all trading from head of stock trading in October. The second one is Colm Kelleher's promotion earlier this month assigning to president of Morgan Stanley from head of trading and investment banking.
During last month, Morgan Stanley has cut 1,200 employees including some 25% of its fixed-income traders and salespeople. However, job cutting or reshuffling don't surprise the analysts by any mean. Because some of the biggest European banks, expected to retreat from the debt markets, have appointed new chief executives in similar manners.
Morgan Stanley has been reported to reduce its workforce last month. The cut off includes 25% of its workers from the fixed income division which has been hard hit this year across Wall Street. Further job cuts or reshuffle to rebuild the problem ridden division has been expected. So appointment of Sam Kellie- Smith as the head of FICC hasn't at all surprised the industry insiders.
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