IT staff will be among the thousands of Merril Lynch staff
expected to lose their jobs when the company is
taken over by Bank of America.
John Thain, Merril Lynch chief executive, confirmed that cuts
would be in the corporate and services sectors, including IT,
according to the Financial Times.
The Bank of America's acquisition of the investment and wealth
management divisions of Merril Lynch is expected to be completed by
the end of the year.
News of IT job losses at Merril Lynch follows recent predictions
by New York financial supervisor William Thompson that up to 35,000
jobs could be lost in the city's financial services industry as a
result of the economic downturn.
Many of those job losses are expected to be as a result of the
collapse of Lehman Brothers, where analysts said
IT staff will survive a major cull only if the liquidators make
quick sales of individual business units.
In the UK, banks struggling with mergers and acquisitions face
disruption to their IT strategies, including job losses.
Recent cost cutting has seen
Bradford & Bingley close a mortgage processing centre with
the loss of 300 IT jobs.
HSBC has slashed 1,100 jobs including IT in its investment
banking division, and
Barclays has cut 1,800 IT jobs.