Associated Press
08.18.2004

Bank of America Corp. laid off an unspecified number of employees Wednesday at hundreds of Fleet Bank branches, a byproduct of the merger of the two banks, a company spokeswoman said.

The Boston Globe, citing company documents it obtained and Fleet branch managers who were told of the cuts, reported in Wednesday's editions said 1,500 or more jobs could be affected.

Bank of America spokeswoman Eloise Hale declined to specify how many jobs were being cut but confirmed some layoffs were occurring Wednesday as part of the North Carolina bank's merger with FleetBoston Financial Corp.

"We have said from the very beginning that there would be 12,500 cuts as a result of the merger," Hale said. "We continue to say that."

Those cuts are expected to occur over two years, affecting about 7 percent of the combined companies' work force of 181,000. Fleet had about 47,000 employees before the merger closed in the spring.

Hale said Bank of America was adjusting staffing at Fleet branches as a result of the merger, with some losing jobs and others gaining.

The Globe said Bank of America is in the process of converting Fleet's 1,500 branches to its own model, which uses fewer full-time staff members per branch.

In a July 14 conference call with analysts following the merger, chief financial officer Marc Oken said Bank of America expects cost savings from the merger to total as much as $750 million by the end of 2004.

The layoffs will affect nearly every community in which Fleet does business, the Globe reported. One branch manager who asked not to be named said it was expected that one worker per branch - or about 1,500 total - would be laid off.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal issued a statement criticizing the layoffs, asking Bank of America for the exact numbers of layoffs and a list of the affected Fleet branches.

"The commitments made to me, both oral and written, were clear and concise: Current employment levels will be kept constant, if not increased, and no overall staffing numbers will be cut," he said.

Hale said the reorganization resulting from the merger ultimately would bring more employees into direct contact with customers and boost the number of tellers. She said the plan is not expected to lead to the closure of Fleet branches.

Linnea Walsh, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Departments of Labor and Workforce Development, said Wednesday that the state had received no notice of impending layoffs from Bank of America. Such notification could be required under federal law, depending on the timeline and the number of job cuts.

After completing its $48 billion acquisition of Fleet, Bank of America temporarily maintained the Fleet name in the Northeast as it began integrating the two companies. This week, it began renaming Fleet branches in upstate New York before moving on to other parts of the Fleet territory over the next few months.

Bank of America shares rose 74 cents to $87.62 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

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