HONG KONG, April 17 (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley ( MS ) is

cutting at least 50 investment banking jobs in the Asia-Pacific

region due to a deals slump, two sources with knowledge of the

matter said.

The layoffs affect around 13% of the Wall Street bank's Asia

investment banking workforce of 400 in the region, according to

one of the sources.

Bankers based in Hong Kong and mainland China are going to

be affected the most, they said. All of the sources declined to

be named as they were not authorised to speak to media.

A Morgan Stanley ( MS ) spokesperson declined to comment.

Bloomberg reported the job cuts first on Wednesday.

In the Asia-Pacific region, merger and acquisition advisory

fees for the bank in the first quarter dropped 41.5% to $30.4

million, according to data compiled by LSEG.