Bank of America job cuts said to total about 200 globally

Charlotte-based Bank of America is cutting about 200 jobs in its trading and investment-banking units around the world, including dozens in the U.S., after CEO Brian Moynihan pledged to trim expenses amid a decline in trading revenue, according to a person familiar with the decision.

The reductions affect employees in New York, London, Hong Kong and other major trading hubs, the person said, asking not to be identified discussing personnel matters. In the Charlotte area, fewer than 10 employees are affected, a source familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

Wall Street firms have been cutting jobs amid a multiyear slowdown in trading revenue.

Moynihan, 55, said this month that third-quarter revenue from that business declined about 5 percent as sluggish fixed-income markets hurt results. A drop of that magnitude would bring trading revenue at the bank to about $3.27 billion for the quarter. Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase & Co. also forecast a decline for the business.

“If the revenue environment weakens or the interest-rate structures don’t move up and the economy slows down, we’ll have to take out more costs to keep them in line with our revenues,” Moynihan said Sept. 17.

Bank of America spokesman John Yiannacopoulos declined to comment on the layoffs Wednesday.

In the U.S., most of Bank of America’s global banking and global markets employees work in Midtown Manhattan, including the skyscraper known as Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park. In Charlotte, employees in those units work the Hearst Tower in uptown and elsewhere.

Senior U.S. employees affected by the cuts include Alison Ferreira, a managing director and former co-head of New York equity sales, and Frank Laino, a managing director overseeing the Internet, health-care and small-cap trading teams, people familiar with the matter said Tuesday.

Tom Morgan, a director and 10-year Merrill Lynch veteran; Tim Hlavacek, in specialty sales of utilities; and Tara Dougherty and Jeffrey Peters, both vice presidents in equity sales, were also let go Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. The former employees didn’t reply to messages left on work or personal phones and to e-mails sent through LinkedIn.

The five largest Wall Street firms – JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley – generated $73.7 billion from trading last year, with about two-thirds of that coming from the fixed-income units and one- third from equities. The total was down from $88.7 billion in 2010, with substantially all of the decline coming in fixed- income, according to data from Bloomberg Intelligence. The Observer contributed.

This story was originally published September 30, 2015 at 9:21 AM with the headline "Bank of America job cuts said to total about 200 globally."