By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ
Published: September 20, 2010

Echoing the slowdown in activity that has hit Wall Street’s biggest institutions, Bank of America plans to cut several hundred jobs in its investment banking unit this week, according to employees.

With its acquisition of Merrill Lynch at the height of the financial crisis in 2008, Bank of America has evolved into one of Wall Street’s biggest firms.

But according to interviews with several employees, all of whom insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter, the cuts stem from the weak trading environment as well as a desire to weed out underperforming workers as the year winds down.

“You want to trim your least productive, weakest players to preserve the bonus pool for everyone else,” said one banker. “We know things haven’t been great in the spring or summer.”

Like many other firms on Wall Street, Bank of America’s New York-based investment bank expanded in the first half of the year, hiring more than 1,000 employees amid hopes that the nascent economic recovery would pick up speed.

But as the broader economy has slowed, so has Wall Street. In the current quarter, New York Stock Exchange volume is running roughly 25 percent below the pace in the second quarter of 2010. Nasdaq volume is down 18 percent over the same period.

The layoffs are expected to affect several parts of the investment banking unit, including areas like equity and fixed-income trading as well as investment banking. Another executive added that management intended to periodically review business performance and make cuts.

The job reductions at the investment bank come at the same time as a broader refocusing in Bank of America’s retail banking operations, said Richard X. Bove, an analyst with Rochdale Securities. In addition to closing some branches, the bank, based in Charlotte, N.C., is also shifting some workers from full-time status to part time.

“The headcount cuts are only one part of it,” said Mr. Bove. “Both on the capital markets side and on the traditional banking side, B. of A. is under pressure.”

Now the nation’s biggest bank, the company has grown through many mergers. But at an investor conference last week, the company’s chief executive, Brian T. Moynihan, said it was time to focus on internal growth rather than more acquisitions.

“Our franchise is complete,” Mr. Moynihan said. “We don’t need to acquire anything. We don’t need to use capital for acquisitions.”

(Source: A version of this article appeared in print on September 21, 2010, on page B6 of the New York edition.)