Bank of America expects to cut several thousand jobs nationwide in its consumer banking division over the next few years as customers shift their banking away from branches to mobile phones and computers.
At an investor conference in New York Tuesday, B of A’s retail banking chief Thong Nguyen said mobile transactions are up 45 percent over the past year, while branch use fell 11 percent.
"We have an equivalent of about 750 branches through the mobile phone. In other words, that has allowed us to shut down 750 branches," Nguyen said.
And he sees that trend continuing.
B of A’s consumer division now has about 68,400 employees. Nguyen says that could fall to the "low 60s" in the coming years - meaning a possible loss of 5,000 jobs or more.
The nation’s second largest bank has been cutting teller and back-office positions for several years, while adding staff to boost sales of loans and other financial products, he said.
Bof A has closed nearly a quarter of its branches since 2009, when the consumer bank had 107,900 employees. That's a loss of about 40,000 jobs.
RELATED LINKS
See Thong Nguyen's slides and listen to the presentation on the BofA Investor Relations web page.
