It's official: Next year, hundreds of jobs will leave Ulster County when Bank of America closes its tax-processing operation in Ulster's TechCity complex.
Some of the affected full-time workers will be offered training for other jobs within the company, said bank spokesman T.J. Crawford.
Crawford said the decision to close the TechCity operation came after Bank of America officials concluded there were no projects available to replace the bank’s expiring contracts to process New York state income tax returns and New York City property tax forms. Both contracts expire late this year.
“At the end of the day, we can’t spend millions (of dollars) to operate a facility for which there is little to no work,” Crawford said.
As recently as March, Senator Chuck Schumer put out a press release saying he was optimistic about preserving Bank of America jobs at the site. But it seems efforts to find other business for Bank of America's TechCity employees haven't born fruit.
The Poughkeepsie Journal reports that Bank of America did not even apply to renew its New York City contract:
...Owen Stone, spokesman for [New York City's] Department of Finance, said Bank of America did not enter a competitive bidding process for a new contract. That was won by Wells Fargo, which will do the work on Staten Island.
The bigger deal is the state contract, which was eroded by an increase in electronic returns.
Reuters reported yesterday that Bank of America just reported the worst quarterly loss in the company's history -- a record-busting $8.8 billion.
The loss was expected after the bank said in June it would pay $8.5 billion to settle lawsuits from mortgage bond investors and take more than $14 billion of other home loan-related charges. But investors were troubled by indications that a tepid economy is retarding recovery outside of mortgages.
Interest income fell during the quarter, and Chief Executive Brian Moynihan said in a conference call that demand for loans is sluggish and the economy is not improving quickly.
Shares of the bank closed down 1.54 percent at $9.57 on the New York Stock Exchange.
