Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman: Wall Street Pay 'Way Too High'

Apparently even Wall Street executives think Wall Street bankers get paid too much.

That's the opinion of financial industry veteran Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman, the Financial Times reports. Gorman says that under new pressure from increased regulation, big banks will have to rein in their pay rates.

“There’s way too much capacity and compensation is way too high,” Gorman said in an interview with the FT. “As a shareholder I’m sort of sympathetic to the shareholder view that the industry is still overpaid.”

This isn't the first time Gorman has criticized Wall Street pay. He said that Morgan Stanley employees unhappy with lower levels of compensation should "just leave," in an interview with Bloomberg TV in January.

Easy for him to say though. Last year, Gorman took home $10.5 million in total compensation. Of course, that pay package might be considered modest compared to other Wall Street CEOs, especially since it fell 25 percent from the year before. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, for example, was paid $23 million last year (elite Wall Street CEOs generally got nice little raises last year, by the way).

But across the board, the belt is tightening on Wall Street, including at Morgan Stanley itself. The investment bank is set to cut 4,000 jobs by the end of this year and is also considering lower pay and bonuses in the new year, Bloomberg reports.