Morgan Stanley is "maniacally focused" on cutting costs apart from compensation and is on track to reduce expenses by $500 million this year, Chief Executive James Gorman said on Tuesday.

Gorman, speaking at a conference in New York, also reiterated Morgan Stanley's plans to reduce costs by $1.4 billion annually over the long term.

"We are maniacally focused on noncomp expenses," said Gorman.

He said the investment bank would achieve those cost-cutting goals in part by merging data centers and merging wealth-management offices, which would reduce real-estate and other non-compensation costs.

The bank is also monitoring the size of its overall payroll for possible job cuts as revenue remains under pressure from a weak market environment, he said.

"We are very, very focused on that, obviously, in this environment," said Gorman.