Bank of America is cutting 30,000 jobs, down from the 40,000 the Wall Street Journal recently reported.

Cuts will come heavily from Charlotte. Yes, that’s the opposite of what the Charlotte Observer reported today, but that’s an easy prediction to make. You’d have to be dim-witted not to see what is happening here. Here’s the official spin.

The reductions will come in consumer banking and other support areas, such as technology and operations …

Bank of America did not provide a breakdown of the cuts by city, but Charlotte is a major hub for consumer banking and technology operations. A source familiar with the matter, though, said Charlotte is not likely to be disproportionately affected by the reductions, noting the bank has major employment centers around the world. The bank has about 15,000 employees in Charlotte.

Sure.

Big Wall Street investors in the bank have long resented BofA’s Charlotte location and the money bank leaders going back to Hugh McColl sank into purchasing a lot of Charlotte real estate when they could have consolidated elsewhere. The purpose of the big Charlotte uptown footprint was to guarantee that the bank would stay put in what is an illogical location for it after McColl left.

The Charlotte location has generated resentment for years among these investors because it has long been seen as highly unhealthy for the bank because it fostered a competition with the other hometown bank, Wachovia, which in turn lead to massive spending on pricey towers seen as a local matter of pride.

Resentment among powerful investors remains over this today, which Moynihan was addressing when he said this:

The bank also plans to offload “tens of millions of square feet” of unused office space, Moynihan said Monday. Bank of America owns or leases 120 million square feet around the world, according to its annual report.

Moynihan, described in the Observer piece as a “walking credibility problem,” has no choice now but to offload jobs and real estate in Charlotte to please the anti-Charlotte investor faction that sees the Charlotte location as extravagant.

Clip and save this, as the former author of this blog would say, and watch it all go down.