Bank of America will add 100 jobs in region

Bank of America Corp. plans to consolidate the back-office operations of its mutual funds in Boston, a move that is expected to add 100 new jobs to the region.

The bank operated three mutual fund groups — Columbia Funds, Nations Funds, and Galaxy Funds — from various regions of the country after Bank of America’s merger with FleetBoston Financial Corp. But the bank now plans to centralize back-office operations in Boston.

The decision is part of Bank of America’s move of its wealth and investment management operations to Boston. The bank plans to move the division’s top leadership and some of its support staff, about 400 jobs in all.

The bank will outsource the funds’ back-office operations to Boston financial services firms State Street Corp. and Boston Financial Data Services, an affiliate of State Street, as part of a joint venture with DST Systems, a Kansas City provider of information processing and computer software services. Both already did work for Columbia funds, Fleet’s mutual-fund complex, but they now will assume responsibility for the Nations Funds and Galaxy Funds operations, as well.

The deal makes Bank of America one of State Street’s biggest clients. ‘‘From our point of view, this is one of the largest investment servicing mandates in the industry,’’ said Hannah Grove, a State Street spokeswoman. ‘‘It’s big.’’

Bank of America currently uses five companies for its back-office mutual fund operations, but it will consolidate with two. Brian Moynihan, president of wealth management, said the bank and the two Boston companies together will employ about 450 people dedicated to the bank’s mutual fund operations. About half already have moved to Bosx ton, including the management team, while the rest plan to move by year’s end, executives said.

One hundred of the back-office jobs will be new, Moynihan said; the rest will be filled by existing employees who already did back-office work for Columbia funds. But if Bank of America had not decided to consolidate in Boston, the city would have lost jobs, Moynihan said. As a result, other cities will lose jobs instead, though he declined to name them.

‘‘The key here is that we’re going to continue to build this wealth and investment management team in Boston, and this is another major step,’’ he said.

The consolidation sets the stage for the bank to winnow down its overlapping mutual funds, which Moynihan said it plans to do more of this fall. The bank plans to eliminate ‘‘dozens’’ of its 114 funds, he said.

Separately yesterday, Bank of America appointed Jane Magpiong, its Massachusetts president, to head its private bank for wealthy clients. A former Fleet executive, she is based in Boston and reports to Moynihan.

The bank also appointed Timothy P. Maloney as president and chief executive of its brokerage, Banc of America Investment Services Inc., which is based in Boston.

Sasha Talcott can be reached at stalcott@globe.com.