Have we passed peak investment banker?

From the Financial Times:

Morgan Stanley is to cut 1,600 jobs in one of its most prominent businesses in the latest example of a Wall Street investment bank axing staff to reduce expenses.

The job cuts amount to about 6 per cent of the total headcount in the bank’s institutional securities group, which helps companies raise money and complete big mergers and acquisitions. About half the 1,600 job cuts will be made in the US, the bank said.

James Gorman, Morgan Stanley chief executive, told the Financial Times in October that there was “way too much capacity and compensation is way too high” in the banking industry. The FT reported then that the investment bank was preparing more pay and job cuts in early 2013 in its effort to reduce costs.

The cull announced on Wednesday comes on top of the 4,000 jobs Morgan Stanley jettisoned last year and is the latest in a series of job cuts made by Wall Street banks.