Berkshire Hills Bancorp, a bank holding company in the US, has eliminated 66 positions during the third quarter of 2013 and is planning to shut down nine branch offices.
The move is part of its strategy to realign its resources for continued expansion in the country. The job cuts represent a decrease of approximately 7% to the bank’s employees from 1,014 to 948.
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Berkshire Hills Bancorp president and CEO Michael Daly was quoted by Boston Business Journal as saying that executives at Pittsfield-based Berkshire Hills, parent of Berkshire Bank, will mark another two branches for closure in the fourth quarter and are "examining additional branch restructuring opportunities" beyond that.
According to Daly, the cost cutting drive and the shift in lending is likely to strengthen the bank’s expansion strategy in Eastern Massachusetts.
Highlighting the need to reduce the branches and headcounts, the bank said that it witnessed a sharp decline in demand for home refinance loans in the second quarter, subsequently, its earnings fell nearly 13% to about 48 cents a share.
Berkshire Bank chief accounting officer Josephine Iannelli told the news agency that the bank is likely to book less than $500,000 in mortgage banking fees in the fourth quarter compared to $5.9m a year earlier.
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By GlobalDataAmid declining earnings, the bank is also purchasing 20 upstate New York branches from Bank of America (BofA), for $14m transaction, which is likely to conclude in early 2014.
