NEW YORK, Sept. 12 (UPI) -- Bank of America Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan said Monday the bank, largest in the United States, would trim annual costs by $5 billion.
Moynihan, speaking at an investors' conference, said the bank would trade size for value, The New York Times reported.
"We do not have to be the biggest company out there. We have to be the best," Moynihan said.
Moynihan did not specify how many additional jobs would be lost. Bank officials had already said an average of 10,000 jobs would be cut per year for the next three years.
Consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said Monday the 30,000 announced layoffs is the largest number of employees let go by a U.S. firm so far in 2011, matching a layoff announcement by the U.S. Postal Service in 2010.
After Bank of America, the largest U.S. layoff announcement for 2011 was 13,000 job cuts announced by pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. in July.
Part of the job cuts are an effort to increase efficiency, purging positions the bank acquired in an expansion phase before Moynihan took over from former Chief Executive Officer Ken Lewis.
The bank plans to scale back some of its 63 data centers and reduce redundant deposit systems, the Times said.
"It's taking out work we don't need to do anymore and getting it out of the company. We're a much simpler company than we were 24 months ago," Moynihan said.
