Wall Street workers got another warning shot across the bow as the nation’s biggest banks gear up to report third-quarter results beginning today.
Bank of America chief Brian Moynihan yesterday said that he planned to make good on a springtime plan to cut a whopping 30,000 workers from the sprawling Charlotte, NC-based bank’s work force.
“As we continue to get through the mortgage issues at Countrywide, you’ll see the head count come down substantially,” Moynihan told Bloomberg Television.
Moynihan has been struggling to put the lumbering bank on a diet and shed nonessential businesses and workers in an effort to reverse the course embarked upon by his predecessor, Ken Lewis.
The former CEO hastily gobbled up mortgage giant Countrywide Financial and Merrill Lynch at the height of the financial crisis.
In a plan dubbed “New BAC,” Moynihan’s pink-slip program will trim 10 percent from its work force of 275,000.
The continued bloodletting is a further blow to Wall Streeters, who have already seen 1,200 jobs disappear this year, according to state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.
BofA shares gained 1.4 percent yesterday, to $9.34. They are up 68 percent this year, making them among the best-performing bank stocks.
The layoffs across Wall Street are aimed at right-sizing banks as trading volumes and other revenues ease. Despite that, banks are expected to post relatively healthy profits.
JPMorgan Chase, which releases its third-quarter results this morning, is on pace for record profits despite its “London Whale” trading scandal that put a $5.8 billion hole in its balance sheet.
Wells Fargo also is slated to report its earnings this morning.