Bank of America (BAC) - Get Report may trim the staff its consumer business as much as 12%, eliminating as many as 8,400 jobs, as CEO Brian Moynihan works to buoy profitability while grappling with low interest rates.

At the end of March, the Charlotte, N.C.-based retail bank had 68,400 employees in its consumer division, down almost 40,000 since the financial crisis. That number will probably decline further, to "the low 60s," Thong Nguyen, the co-head of consumer banking, said during a conference in New York on Tuesday. He did not provide a time change for the reductions.

Bank of America was trading up about 1.2% an hour before the close on Wednesday.

The Financial Times reported Wednesday morning that the reduction would mainly come from the attrition of back office employees rather than layoffs. A Bank of America spokesperson declined to comment further.

Bank of America is able to cut staff partly because of growth in digital banking, which has enabled it to close branches as customers shift to online bill payments and make deposits with mobile devices like smart phones and tablets. The number of active mobile banking customers rose 15% in the three months through March, to 19.6 million, the bank said in April.

Nguyen noted that customers are visiting physical branches less for daily transactions but instead for larger tasks, such as opening a credit card or taking out a mortgage.

In response, Nguyen is refurbishing branches to offer an array of more complex services, from loans to investment advice, "starting with 1,500 and then 200 to 300 every year," he said.

"For three people that I'm taking out of the teller line, I'm going to reinvest two into the sales force," he said. The sales force will expand up to 40% of the total positions, according to Nguyen.

Bank of America has been steadily closing retail branches since the financial crisis, shutting 1,400 in the past seven years. The bank's consumer unit serves about 60 million customers, accounting for more than half of earnings and revenues.

Bank of America has a 52-week low of $10.99 and a 52-week high of $18.48. The company is trading at a 60% discount to book value, a gauge that subtracts liabilities from total assets.