Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management, now a unit of Bank of America, has laid off “several hundred” brokers who have only been working at the US firm for less than two years, according to an internal email, Dow Jones reported.

The report comes as WealthBriefing has heard from various sources that Merrill Lynch, which was bought by BoA at the start of this year, is planning extensive job cuts to its operations on a bigger scale than has been previously announced.

A Merrill Lynch spokeswoman said there were layoffs but declined to say how many brokers lost their jobs, Dow Jones, which had seen the internal email, said.

The financial advisors who are being shed have been with the firm for less than two years. The layoffs were based on performance and were an effort to reduce the workforce to cut costs.

The wealth management division at Merrill has already seen one round of reductions as the firm let go of 400 advisors in December who were in the US Paths of Achievement training programme and had been with the firm between six months and two years.

The start of 2009 has been tumultuous for Merrill Lynch. Last week, John Thain, former chief executive of the firm, resigned from
Bank of America
. Earlier this month,

Robert McCann resigned as head of the wealth-management unit, whileGreg Fleming, former chief operating officer and the second-highest ranking executive at Merrill Lynch, left the firm to take a teaching position at

Yale
Law
School.

Merrill Lynch, meanwhile, has cut 40 jobs in the wealth management division of DSP Merrill Lynch

India.

The affected division includes the head of investment products and head of investment research for

India and other senior financial advisors, reports said, without elaborating on the report by giving names of affected individuals.