Echoing the slowdown in activity that has hit Wall Street’s biggest institutions, Bank of America plans to cut several hundred jobs in its investment banking unit this week, according to employees.

With its acquisition of Merrill Lynch at the height of the financial crisis in 2008, Bank of America has evolved into one of Wall Street’s biggest firms.

But according to interviews with several employees, all of whom insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter, the cuts stem from the weak trading environment as well as a desire to weed out underperforming workers as the year winds down.

“You want to trim your least productive, weakest players to preserve the bonus pool for everyone else,” said one banker. “We know things haven’t been great in the spring or summer.”