Central County Losing 11 Offices in Bank Merger

Bank of America said Monday that it will close 11 of its 32 branches in central Orange County.

That brings to 40 the number of redundant branches that Bank of America has said it will shut down in the county since acquiring Security Pacific National Bank in April. The bank said that the latest 11--two B of A and nine Security Pacific--are the last it plans to close as a result of the acquisition. In most cases, bank branches are going dark if they are within a mile or so of others now owned by B of A.

The bank will not say how many people work at the offices that are to close. If the number were 20 employees at each branch, a conservative estimate, that could total 800 for the 40 branches.

B of A does not dispute industry estimates that as many as half of those employees will be laid off. The branches will be shuttered over weekends in January and February. The employees will be laid off by April.

The closures will leave B of A with 84 branches in Orange County; a few of them are former Security Pacific branches, but most are B of A branches.

The branches listed in Monday’s announcement are in Newport Beach, Garden Grove, Irvine, Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Tustin, Fountain Valley, Westminster and Santa Ana.