Bank Of America Pulls Job Offers To MBA Graduates - Report

Tom Burroughes

9 March 2009

Bank of America has become the first US bank to withdraw job offers made to MBA students graduating from US business schools this summer, citing conditions laid out in its bail-out deal as the reason, the Financial Times reported.

The recently passed $787 billion stimulus bill in effect prevents financial institutions that have received money from the government’s troubled asset relief programme from applying for H1-B visas for highly skilled immigrants if they have recently made US workers redundant.

The FT story did not elaborate on whether the bank's move will affect its wealth management operations. BoA did not immediately reply when contacted by WealthBriefing on the matter.

As the financial slowdown continues to bite, there are fears that some banks will squeeze recruitment of graduates and post-graduates, hitting their ability to develop in-house training in the long term. Last week, Coutts, the UK private bank, announced it was shedding up to 150 jobs out of a total of 2,300 in the UK. A number of graduate trainee positions will be axed.

BoA, which has received a total of $45 billion in TARP funds, is in the process of digesting two large acquisitions – Countrywide, the mortgage broker, and Merrill Lynch – which will see thousands of jobs lost.

A spokesman for the bank was quoted by the FT as saying: “Recent changes in legislation made it necessary for Bank of America to rescind job offers it had made to students requiring H-1B sponsorship.”

The number of international students affected by the BofA move is thought to be no more than 50 but business schools are concerned that other banks could follow suit.

Traditionally, about a third of MBA students at the leading US schools have taken up finance and banking jobs on graduation, with about a third of those MBAs coming from outside the US.