Morgan Stanley has wasted little time in the New Year in carrying out some of the job cuts it proposed last month, letting go of a number of staff in its European equities division late last week, including its head of index trading.

The move comes after Morgan Stanley said in December that it would cut 1,600 positions across the company in early 2012 amid an industry wide decline in revenues. This is equivalent to around 2.6% of the 62,648 staff that the bank employed at the end of the third quarter.