Following the New York Stock Exchange's move to its new hybrid trading system Bank of America Specialists has laid off another 43 Nyse specialists and clerks and warned staff that more job cuts are on the way.
The latest job cuts are in addition to the 40 Nyse employees that Bank of America's specialist business laid off in January.
According to a New York Post report the BofA unit had 165 employees at the start of the year but is expecting to be down to a staff of just 65 by the beginning of spring.
A BofA spokesperson told reporters that the bank was forced to take "drastic action" after the Nyse moved all listed securities to the hybrid trading system.
Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers have also laid off specialists and reduced their Nyse floor staff during the past month in response to increasing use of program trading and Nyse's move to a combined floor-based and electronic market.
Nyse specialist Van der Moolen also said last month that it was cutting 30% of its US workforce.
However, according to the New York Post report, active Nyse-listed stock traders have complained that the headcount reductions associated with the move to the hybrid system "have made the opening markets in some smaller and medium capitalisation companies rocky".
In a separate move, the New York Post also reports allegations that former BAS CEO Christopher Quick was deposed as part of a civil arbitration between the company and a former clerk.
Citing an anonymous source, the report says the arbitration partly centres on the firing of a clerk who was said to be "highly critical of the firm's handling of allegations of illegal market-making".
BofA declined to comment on the litigation matter.