Bank of America/Merrill Lynch has dished out pink slips to 40 bankers of DSP Merrill Lynch unit

Bank of America/Merrill Lynch has dished out pink slips to 40 bankers in the wealth management division of DSP Merrill Lynch India, officially called the Global Private Client (GPC). This includes the head of investment products and head of investment research for India and other senior financial advisors. Curiously, the head of wealth management for Asia Pacific put in his papers last Friday, raising doubts about the timing of his exit.

Responding to a mail from ET, DSP Merrill Lynch India said: “As announced on December 11th, Bank of America expects to eliminate 30,000-35,000 positions over the next three years.” Bank of America acquired Merrill Lynch in September 2008 for $50 billion. A senior executive at the bank, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that given the state of the economy and markets this was an inevitable exercise and that more layoffs would happen over the next few weeks.