Bank of America Corp. will cut as many as 8,000 jobs at its retail bank, according to a report in the Financial Times, which cited comments from the head of the unit.

Thong Nguyen, president of retail banking and co-head of consumer banking, said the number of employees would likely fall to the low 60,000s from 68,400 at the end of the first quarter, the FT reported. Most of the cuts will be among back-office employees, said unnamed people with knowledge of the situation.

Bank of America’s stock has fallen 20 percent this year as the financial industry suffers from central bank policies of setting low interest rates in an effort to stimulate the economy. When rates are low, the net interest margins of banks get squeezed and impair revenue and profitability.

Citigroup analysts in March said banks would cut as many 2 million jobs globally as the rise of financial technology, or “fintech,” would replace humans with computer algorithms that do the same thing.

Since peaking at the height of the 2006 housing bubble, bank employment has decline 2 percent a year. annually.  The Citigroup report said those cuts could accelerate to 3 percent a year in the next 10 years, primarily coming from elimination of branches and other physical locations for consumer banking, The Wall Street Journal reported.

“The future of branches in banking is about focusing on advisory and consultation rather than transactions,” the analysts wrote. They added: “Around 65% of banks’ staff are doing processing work that could be automated in the long term.”

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