Bank of America is set to shed hundreds of jobs

http://www.wsj.com/articles/bank-of-america-to-lay-off-more-than-100-employees-in-banking-markets-1443536677

Bank of America Corp. is expected to announce layoffs in its global banking and global markets unit as early as Tuesday, according to people familiar with the matter.

The layoffs will likely result in a couple of hundred job losses, according to these people. Investment banks often trim jobs at this time of year to clear the books before bonus season.

Since the spring, Bank of America Chief Executive Brian Moynihan has said that if results from the trading business don’t improve, the unit will have to cut expenses further. Bank of America’s second-quarter trading revenue, excluding an accounting adjustment, fell 2%.

U.S. investment banks have struggled to adjust to new regulations that have crimped revenue, and a slowdown in some corners of the world economy have caused some clients to pull back on trading.

Bank of America has struggled more than most. It is the only large U.S. bank to post a decline in revenue from trading and investment banking in the first half of 2015, a time when mergers were frequent and central-bank actions created an ideal environment for trading in assets like currencies. The bank’s 7% drop in revenue from that segment compared with a 7% increase at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and a 19% increase at Morgan Stanley, according to company data compiled by analysts at UBS.