Bank of America looking to cut $5 billion annual costs

12/09/2011 - 13:36

(Reuters) - Bank of America seeks to cut its annual expenses by $5 billion a year, through its major cost cutting initiative, the bank's chief executive said.

The bank has about 50 senior employees reviewing some 150,000 ideas for cutting costs, said CEO Brian Moynihan at a Barclays Capital conference.

The bank has about $73 billion of annual expenses excluding goodwill impairment that it can use as a baseline for trimming. Bank of America hopes its ratio of expenses to revenue will decline to 55 percent.

(Reporting by Joe Rauch and Dan Wilchins; Editing by Derek Caney)