Morgan Stanley’s top woman ousted

The credit crunch in financial markets has cost another Wall Street high-flier their job - and this time it's a woman. Zoe Cruz, co-president of Morgan Stanley, got her marching orders at the end of last week from chairman John Mack - and some on Wall Street are asking why he hasn't taken the blame himself.

In the two previous big banking departures in recent weeks - Stan O'Neal at Merrill Lynch and Charles Prince at Citigroup - it was the chairman who fell on his sword the fall. Not this time.

Cruz was was one of the few truly powerful women on Wall Street, her no-nonsense manner earning her the nickname 'Cruz missile'. She was the highest-paid corporate woman in America in 2006, according to Fortune magazine, making $27m in 2006 and more than $100m since 2001.

That was until Morgan Stanley was forced to write down $3.7bn last month as a result of trading losses from subprime-related investments and Mack decided Cruz, in charge of the trading division, should be held responsible. "[Mack] is not a warm and fuzzy person, neither is he particularly forgiving," said Brad Hintz, one of many New York analysts who believe Morgan Stanley's total write-down will end up closer to $5bn.

Until her downfall, Cruz, 52 and a mother of three, was considered to be one of the two most influential woman on Wall Street. The other was Sallie Krawcheck, head of wealth management at Citigroup.

While Cruz was seen as a potential successor to Mack as chairman, Krawcheck was mooted as Prince's successor at Citigroup. Now both women appear to have crashed through the glass ceiling. Krawcheck was recently moved from the job of chief financial officer to running the firm's brokerage division and is no longer considered a candidate to run Citi. ·