By ALLISSA KLINE
akline@bizjournals.com | 716-541-1612

It's anyone's guess if Bank of America's plans to eliminate approximately 30,000 jobs "over the next few years" will affect employees in Western New York.

The Charlotte, N.C.-headquartered financial giant announced the cuts Sept. 12 during a presentation at the Barclays Capital 2011 Global Financial Services Conference. The reductions are part of the bank's new effort - dubbed "New Project BAC" - to trim $5 billion in annual expenses by the end of 2014.

A geographical breakdown of the job cuts is not yet available, according to a bank spokesperson. Right now, the bank employs roughly 2,000 people in the Buffalo area, the spokesperson said.

Bank of America is the sixth-largest  bank in the region, claiming 3.2 percent of the deposit share, according to the most recent market-share data available from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. A year ago, it had $1.2 billion in local deposits.

The restructuring initiative includes management reorganization and the sale of non-core business units and assets. Officials are wrapping up the end of the first phase of the comprehensive review that began in 2010 and plan to start the second phase in October.