By Lauren Tara LaCapra

(Reuters) – The average Wall Street bonus will decline by 20 percent to 30 percent this year, according to a closely watched compensation report, as banks cut costs and lay off workers in a weak environment for trading and deal-making.

Employees in the bond-trading business will face the sharpest pay cuts, with bonuses down 35 percent to 45 percent from a year earlier, according to a projection by New York compensation consulting firm Johnson Associates.

Nov 8 (Reuters) – The average Wall Street bonus will
decline by 20 percent to 30 percent this year, according to a
closely watched compensation report, as banks cut costs and lay
off workers in a weak environment for trading and deal-making.

Employees in the bond-trading business will face the
sharpest pay cuts, with bonuses down 35 percent to 45 percent
from a year earlier, according to a projection by New York
compensation consulting firm Johnson Associates.

By Lauren Tara LaCapra

(Reuters) – The sudden collapse of MF Global Holdings Ltd is leaving some small and independent futures traders angry and frustrated.

Customers of the bankrupt firm are starting to complain about getting checks that bounced, having requests to transfer funds denied and receiving inaccurate account statements.

Nov 4 (Reuters) – MF Global Holdings Ltd’s
bankruptcy has sent shockwaves through a little Iowa town,
where a local broker said he has had to guarantee more than $1
million in funds from farmers he placed at the futures
brokerage.

Ken Ries, the 62-year-old owner of Ries Ag Marketing, has
been clearing through MF Global and Refco since opening his
commodity brokerage and grain dealer in 1987.

Nov 4 (Reuters) – Shares of Jefferies Group Inc
turned positive on Friday afternoon as the investment bank took
the unusual step of disclosing its specific positions in
European sovereign debt in an effort to fight what CEO Richard
Handler called “rumors, misinformation and misplaced
concerns.”

Jefferies shares were up 4.7 percent at $12.57 on Friday
afternoon after falling as much as 7.4 percent earlier in the
day.

NEW YORK, Nov 2 (Reuters) – Workers at MF Global Holdings
Ltd have been racing to get hired before thousands of
other recently laid-off Wall Street peers.

But with a pile of resumes on hiring managers’ desks, the
odds of finding a job for many of MF’s 2,900 employees in the
near term are slim, according to recruiters and competitors who
have been interviewing them.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Jefferies Group Inc decided not to buy MF Global Holdings Ltd because the company’s high leverage and its bets on European debt made it a risky gamble, Jefferies Chief Financial Officer Peregrine Broadbent said on Tuesday.

Jefferies’ shares tumbled as much as 14 percent as investors feared that the investment bank, another relatively small Wall Street player, could get burned by bad bets on Europe the same way MF Global did, analysts said.

Oct 24 (Reuters) – Morgan Stanley plans to sell its
mortgage-servicing business to Ocwen Financial Corp for
$59.3 million, closing out a money-losing strategy that stemmed
from the subprime housing bubble.

The deal, which was announced by the two companies on Monday,
also signals Ocwen’s strategy of expanding by buying troubled
servicing assets on the cheap from big banks that have stepped
back from the U.S. mortgage business in the aftermath of the
financial crisis.

REUTERS (Reuters) – Morgan Stanley posted a surprisingly strong profit during a rough-and-tumble third quarter for Wall Street, helped by a large accounting gain and an increase in stock-trading revenue.

The bank’s earnings came mostly from an accounting oddity that allows companies to book gains when the value of their own debt declines.

Oct 19 (Reuters) – Morgan Stanley reported a
third-quarter profit and its trading and merger advisory
businesses performed better than competitors’.

The bank benefited from a $3.4 billion accounting gain, and
its underlying businesses looked strong enough for investors to
send its shares up 1.3 percent in premarket trading.