FleetBoston is making reductions in the number of its employees and mutual funds, a spokesperson with the firm told the MutualFundWire.com. The move follows FleetBoston's acquisition of Liberty Financial on November 1, 2001.

"There will be 430 job eliminations over the course of 2001 and 2002," the official reported. "We are eliminating as many jobs through attrition as possible. For the most part, the job eliminations will be coming from the processing and back office areas. We are working to have no great reductions in research, distribution, and portfolio management."

"A lot of this consolidation comes from our purchase of Liberty late last year. There was a duplication of some of our efforts, and we are now looking at making a more efficient operation," he contended.

Will all the job eliminations come from the Liberty side alone? "No," the spokesperson answered, "We are spreading the eliminations between both sides. This is something we will be continuing to look at on an ongoing basis."

As for the funds, the spokesperson would only state that there was going to be a consolidation. He would not elaborate further stating that the firm was filing with the SEC later this afternoon and that prevented him from commenting. 

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