Bank of America plans to add 1,300 New England jobs

Bank of America Corp. executives said yesterday that they will add 1,300 jobs in New England by the end of this year, primarily in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

The bank is hiring across several lines of business, including its Boston-based Global Wealth and Investment Management division, a Rhode Island call center, a Waltham ``client relationship center," and new staff for its branches.

The hiring flurry comes more than two years after Bank of America acquired New England's largest bank, FleetBoston Financial Corp., for $48 billion. As part of the acquisition, Bank of America executives promised to keep the same number of New England employees, 17,900, as Fleet had before the deal.

But soon after, Bank of America began layoffs at Fleet -- nearly 3,000 job cuts across New England alone -- igniting a storm of criticism from public officials, who feared the bank was breaking its promises.

Since that low point in 2004, however, Bank of America has been steadily adding jobs here. Bank executives detailed the more recent job gains yesterday after a meeting with US Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Newton, who had been among the bank's fiercest critics during the merger.

The bank currently has 1,100 open positions and plans a job fair in Waltham today, executives said. This fall, it plans to unveil details of another 200 jobs.

``Let's be honest, this hasn't been the normal course of events in mergers," Frank said after the meeting. ``It's nice to see there can be reasons for mergers other than simply firing people."

Currently, Bank of America employs 16,600 people in New England. With the new jobs, it is on track to be back at Fleet's former employment level by the end of this year, said Anne Finucane, Bank of America's global marketing and corporate affairs executive.

Before the merger, the chief executives of both banks ``sat down and made a set of agreements" about staffing levels, Finucane said. ``I'm happy to report that we've been able to deliver on them."

Bank of America's new jobs cover a broad spectrum -- everything from $210,000-a-year wealth management positions to $30,000-a-year back-office jobs.

Wealth management has been among the fastest-growing areas for the bank in New England. It is run by former Fleet executive Brian Moynihan and includes mutual funds, the brokerage, the private bank that serves the wealthy, and the bank's ``premier" customers -- those with more than $100,000 in investable assets.

Bank of America established Boston as the division headquarters in 2004 as a way to partially offset the exodus of high-paid executives at Fleet. Since then, the bank has moved all the division's top executives to Boston, as well as several hundred marketing, legal, and support staff members. Yesterday, Bank of America executives said they are hiring about 650 more employees for the division, including financial advisers and staff for its private bank. The number includes more than 100 client managers in Waltham.

Since Fleet's headquarters was in Boston, Bank of America's layoffs hurt Massachusetts the most. Fleet had about 9,000 jobs in the state before the deal.

But Bank of America executives said yesterday that Massachusetts will get back nearly all of those jobs: By the end of this year, they expect to employ roughly 8,500 here. Rhode Island, the site of a new call center, will increase its employee base from 3,500 before the deal to 4,000 at the end of this year.

Also yesterday, Bank of America executives said they will add 300 more jobs to the call center, located in East Providence, R.I., bringing the number of employees there to 1,200. Executives say some of the Rhode Island call center workers live in southeastern Massachusetts.

``This has been a good marketplace for Bank of America," Finucane said. ``With that growth, we see new opportunity."

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