Projo Biz Blog

A day after Bank of America announced deep personnel cuts, it is still not clear how those changes will affect the bank's Rhode Island employment levels.

The Providence Journal reported today that Bank of America was eliminating 650 corporate and investment banking jobs and selling its equity prime brokerage business. Those moves are part of a broad restructuring effort in response to challenging credit market conditions.

The new job cuts are in addition to about 500 cuts made late last year as part of an overall reduction of 3,000 jobs companywide, according to the Associated Press.

In an e-mail to the Journal this morning, Bank of America spokesman Ernesto C. Anguilla said the bank has not "broken out the locations where the reductions will occur." Bank of America's corporate and investment banking divisions both have Rhode Island-based employees, Anguilla said.

Bank of America had 4,500 Rhode Island employees as of last November, according to the state Economic Development Corporation. It is the state's eighth-largest employer.

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