Morgan Stanley Announces Restructuring of Mortgage Business

Net Reduction-in-force of 600 Employees reflects current market conditions.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) announced today a restructuring of its residential mortgage business both to reflect current market conditions and to position the business for long-term growth. The plan reduces origination capacity to a level appropriate for the existing market and integrates its global mortgage businesses under a single platform.

This restructuring will result in a net reduction-in-force of approximately 500 employees in the United States and approximately 100 employees in Europe including 90 from Morgan Stanley’s UK mortgage subsidiary, Advantage.

“Morgan Stanley remains committed to building the leading vertically-integrated mortgage business and growing our Saxon Capital servicing operations despite the cyclical downturn in the mortgage markets. The consolidation of our mortgage businesses will result in increased efficiencies and superior service for our clients. It will also best position the Firm for growth when opportunities present themselves in the future,” said Tony Tufariello, Managing Director and Global Head of Securitized Products.

Morgan Stanley presently operates three stand-alone mortgage businesses in the U.S. – Saxon Capital, a servicer, special servicer and wholesale originator of subprime loans; Morgan Stanley Credit Corp, a retail originator of prime loans; and Morgan Stanley Mortgage Capital Holdings, an aggregator of loans purchased from correspondent lenders. The consolidated platform will be a fully integrated mortgage company comprised of four centrally managed business channels: servicing, conduit, wholesale and retail. It will originate, purchase and service a broad spectrum of products through each business channel.

Bruce Witherell, Managing Director and Global Co-Head of the Residential Mortgage Business at Morgan Stanley, commented on the new business platform, “The industry has experienced a fundamental paradigm shift that will require banks to rethink product offerings and capital structures, and to provide greater transparency to investors in securities backed by pools of mortgages. This platform – combined with our world-class capital markets franchise – ensures that we are well positioned for this environment.”

Morgan Stanley’s new U.S. residential platform will be headquartered in Irving, Texas and will retain the Firm’s existing regional operations centers in Ft. Worth, Texas; Foothill Ranch, California; Riverwoods, Illinois; and Tampa, Florida. Several offices will be closed as part of the restructuring with operations transferred to Texas.

Commenting on the reductions in Europe, David Spector, Managing Director and Global Co-Head of the Residential Mortgage Business at Morgan Stanley said, “Given the current challenging market conditions in Europe, we felt it prudent to rescale our business at this time.”