SINGAPORE – U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley is cutting 80 back-office positions in Singapore as part of measures to streamline its operations and is offering relocations mainly to India and Hungary, people familiar with the situation said Thursday.

The move comes as investment banks around the world are laying off thousands of staff as volatile financial markets and heightened regulatory scrutiny pressure earnings. Morgan Stanley reported in October an increase in third-quarter net profit, but investment banking revenue fell 14% from a year earlier to $864 million, as underwriting activity slowed with volatility in the markets.

Morgan Stanley is redeploying certain Singapore-based roles supporting its finance and operations divisions, including shifting product control jobs to India, and some management-reporting roles to Hungary, the people said. The move is part of the firm’s strategy to raise business efficiencies and cut costs, they said.

These positions provide support for Morgan Stanley’s global businesses, and the move doesn’t affect the bank’s front-office operations made up of investment bankers and private bankers, the people said. The transition is underway and will be completed by the middle of 2012.

“Singapore is getting more expensive partly due to a stronger currency. It’s getting close to Hong Kong in terms of costs, so it doesn’t make sense to keep those functions here,” one of the people said.

Hong Kong is Morgan Stanley’s regional headquarters in the Asia Pacific region.

Morgan Stanley said “the firm is in the process of redeploying a number of Singapore-based infrastructure roles to alternate global locations as part of the firm’s continual process to optimize business and location efficiencies.”

The move comes after Citigroup Inc. said this month it will eliminate roughly 4,500 jobs over the next few quarters, or about 1.6% of its work force, while Japan-based Nomura Holdings Inc. tripled its annual cost-cutting target to $1.2 billion, with most of the new reductions centered in Europe. Credit Suisse Group said it will slash 1,500 positions in its second round of staff reductions in four months.

In Singapore, Citigroup has cut just under 40 people from its headcount over the past few weeks across its markets, investment banking and private banking businesses, a person familiar with the situation said.

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