SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Bank of America said late Thursday that it plans to cut up to 35,000 jobs over the next three years as the financial giant adjusts to a recession and completes the pending acquisition of brokerage firm Merrill Lynch & Co.

This comes as the latest wave of mass layoffs in the troubled financial sector, which has been crippled by the credit crunch and the failure of large institutions such as Lehman Brothers LEHMQ. More than 220,000 jobs already have been lost across the sector this year, according to labor-tracking firm Challenger Gray & Christmas.