Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and JPMorgan Chase are among financial firms that added employees last year as the industry adjusted to an expanding economy and demands imposed by new U.S. regulations, Bloomberg News reports. 

Bank of America added 4,000 employees, or 1.4% (on top of a 17% increase in 2009, the year Merrill Lynch was added).  Wells Fargo added 4,900, the biggest U.S. lender, counted 288,000 employees in its annual report for 2010 to securities regulators, an increase of 4,000, or 1.4 percent.  JPMorgan, meanwhile increased its headcount by almost 8%.  By comparison, Citigroup, the 3rd-largest bank by assets, cut 5,300 jobs, or 2% in 2010.

Banks apparently are adding employees to help ensure they’re in compliance with new laws such as the Dodd-Frank Reform Act.  Key elements of the act are the creation of a consumer bureau at the Federal Reserve, a council of regulators to monitor firms for systemic risk to the economy and a mechanism for liquidating large financial firms whose collapse could threaten economic stability.  "It’s a very nuanced regulatory environment, not just for the U.S., but globally, so you need people on the ground in different regions because the regulations are so in flux and varied," said Korn/Ferry's Eric Moskowitz.   [Bloomberg, 2/28]