BoA Faces Layoffs As Cost-Cutting Measures Underway

Keeping in line with what many major banks have done this year — as part of cost-cutting measures to be more efficient — Bank of America may soon be announcing layoffs this year, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources said to be close with the matter.

The sources indicated that the layoff will be in the global banking and global markets unit, and could be a few hundred jobs. While the news about the layoffs broke yesterday (Sept. 29), CEO Brian Moynihan indicated that this move was happening as early as the spring, when he first started discussing cutbacks across all of the bank’s divisions.

And remarks from Moynihan during the company’s second-quarter earnings call showed once again that customer preference toward more self-service and online options is driving the decisions behind the bank’s mobile strategy.

In its quarterly earnings report, BoA noted that the growth of mobile banking and self-service customer touchpoints has impacted the bank’s retail footprint. This means closing 267 locations, and opening 33 locations. By the end of Q2, Bank of America had a total of 4,789 financial centers. Q1 ended with 4,835 branches, which was down from last year’s Q1 with 5,023 branches.

Bank of America’s trading revenue was down in the second quarter, which was when Moynihan had discussed the possible expense cutbacks.

While all large banks have had their fair share of struggles in the past year down, with many missing earnings expectations, Bank of America has been hit particularly hard. According to WSJ’s stats, it’s the only major bank in the U.S. to post a declining revenue on its trading/investment banking side in the first six months of the year.

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