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Bank of America plans 3,500 layoffs

Bob Moon Aug 19, 2011
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Bank of America plans 3,500 layoffs

Bob Moon Aug 19, 2011
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Steve Chiotakis: There’s word today that Bank of America is about to layoff thousands of employees. Reports are the nation’s biggest bank by assets will cut 3,500 jobs this quarter. And its restructuring plan could push those job cuts as high as 10,000.

Marketplace senior business correspondent Bob Moon has more.


Bob Moon: While it may be true the country’s banking giants have more cash on hand than they did three years ago, that’s also a problem. Demand for loans is down, and the cash is staying in their vaults. BofA, especially, is still burdened with books full of bad home loans. And unhappy shareholders have watched the value of their stock plunge by half so far this year.

One quick way to boost the bottom line and attract investors is laying off workers. But at Institutional Risk Analytics, Christopher Whalen says B-of-A will still be in the wrong kind of growth business — wrapping up to work through bad mortgages.

Christopher Whalen: They’re still hiring in the back office, if you’re talking about people who can work on foreclosed real estate, or deal with legal issues for all the litigation they’re in, they’re hiring.

Whalen says it’s no way for a bank to stay solvent.

Whalen: They’re not generating revenue when they hire people to work on lawsuits, or deal with foreclosed properties. There’s no revenue there.

There’s word these layoffs will even cut into B-of-A’s trading business, hitting the Merrill Lynch brokerage unit the bank acquired in 2008, at the height of the financial crisis.

I’m Bob Moon for Marketplace.

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