Fleet Financial Group To Eliminate 800 Jobs

Fleet Financial Group plans to cut 800 jobs in its branch offices and create an equal number of positions in fast-growing areas of the bank, a shift the bank said will put some employees out of work.

A Fleet spokesman said Wednesday the planned changes resulted from a study that showed the bank had too many branch employees and too few people in fast-growing areas like computer and telephone banking, insurance and investment services.

“The banking industry is changing fairly rapidly both in terms of technology and products,” James Mahoney said. “What we have done is reallocate a number of positions from our branch network to these areas.”

Mahoney said the bank would have about the same number of employees - 35,000 - as it does today once the shift is complete.