Morgan Stanley has cut pay within its investment banking unit by just 15% this year, despite dealmaking fees nearly halving in the first nine months of 2022.

The US bank made $1.3bn in investment banking fees during the third quarter, a decline of 55% on the same period last year when both capital markets and M&A revenue hit record highs. This is a sharper decline than Wall Street rival JPMorgan, where dealmaking fees slipped by 47% from a year earlier.