Reports: Bank of America to ax 10,000 or more jobs

[August 19, 2011]  (AP) -- Bank of America Corp. is cutting 3,500 employees this quarter and working on restructuring plans that will ax several thousand more jobs, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times reported citing people familiar with the situation.

The reports Friday said that the job cuts at the biggest U.S. bank by assets might exceed 10,000 or about 3.5 percent of its current work force.

The retrenchments are part of CEO Brian Moynihan's efforts to engineer a recovery at BoA, which was hit hard by the bursting of the housing bubble. Its share price has fallen nearly 50 percent so far this year.

"I know it is tough to have to manage through reductions," Moynihan wrote in a memo to the company's senior executives late Thursday, according to the reports. "But we owe it to our customers and our shareholders to remain competitive, efficient and manage our expenses carefully."

Many other banks and financial institutions are also cutting staff. They are under pressure to improve returns to investors amid a weak U.S. economy and new restrictions on lucrative trading and banking activities that were blamed for contributing to the 2008 financial crisis.

WSJ said the initial 3,500 job cuts are spread across BoA's business including investment banking and trading.

[Associated Pressldnauthor

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.