Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain says he expects to see thousands of job cuts in IT, finance, and administration as the company looks for $7 billion in savings from its merger with Bank of America.
Speaking to Bloomberg News from Dubai, Thain said most of the job losses will be in IT, operations and finance, but that jobs won't be eliminated in fixed income and commodities.
"We haven't mapped it out in terms of actual number of people, but we are committed to saving $7 billion across the combined platforms, and that will be a challenge," Thain said. "Between our two companies, it will be clearly thousands of jobs."
The firm has already slashed more than 5000 jobs in the past 18 months, shrinking its global headcount to about 60,000.
Shareholders are expected to vote on the $50 billion merger with Bank of America in mid-November, with closure sought by year end.
Merrill CEO sees thousands of job cuts - Bloomberg