More Details Emerge About BofA Cuts

Bank of America says it will cut 30,000 jobs over the next two and a half years. The news came after CEO Brian Moynihan spoke to investors at a financial conference. During his speech, Moynihan spoke more vaguely about the cost-cutting plan known as "Project New B-A-C." He said the bank will be saving about $5 billion a year by 2014. "The whole goal here was to make our bank more streamlined, more efficient, easier to do business with, both internally and externally," said Monihan. Last week, Moynihan laid off two top executives and removed a level of management. Company-wide job cuts have been expected - with speculation they could get as high as 45,000. Moynihan made clear today those cuts would not come all at once - but rather over the next few years and represent about 10-percent of Bank of America's total workforce. Moynihan told investors the bank is carrying excess baggage from six major acquisitions it did between 2003 and 2008. Only recently has the assimilation of Countrywide and Merrill Lynch been complete. "This gives us a chance to take all that effort and turn it on ourselves to make ourselves look more efficient and effective," said Moynihan. He pointed to the 63 data centers Bank of America ended up with after the deals, and "tens of millions of square feet that we don't use." Moynihan says Bank of America also inherited about 200,000 employees through acquisitions. The bank's total headcount stands at about 300,000 today - with 15,000 in the Charlotte area. Bank of America did not say how many local jobs are included in the 30,000 it plans to cut by 2014. Moynihan says Bank of America reached out to its employees for suggestions of how to improve the company and got back more than 150,000 ideas. These latest cuts will come from the bank's consumer banking, home loan and credit card divisions that are just the first phase of what Moynihan has dubbed "Project New BAC."