Morgan Stanley beginning early next year will start paying out a bigger slice of employees’ bonuses immediately, while reducing the size of delayed payouts that had grown more popular on Wall Street in the wake of the financial crisis.

The move, announced Friday, reverses the firm's push toward so-called deferred compensation, stock and cash that is paid out gradually, over several years. Morgan Stanley said it would now defer, on average, about half of employee bonuses, down from an average of about 80%. The firm also is speeding up the vesting period for certain cash deferrals, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.