DETROIT, Mich. -- Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis grabbed headlines Tuesday after a speech at the Detroit Economic Club for comments about the auto industry and about the impending credit card crisis.

But on job loss at his own company, he said this: "We haven't yet announced the amount of job declines as a result of that, but it will be fairly significant because of the overlap."

He is talking about job eliminations inevitable during the merger of Bank of America with Merrill Lynch next year. He's always said there would be job loss, but until now, publically, had stressed the positive.

What "fairly significant" means in terms of numbers, a Bank of America spokesperson couldn't say. They say this is not a departure from a previous assessment of what will happen during the merger.

UNC-Charlotte finance professor Tony Plath told NewsChannel 36 otherwise.

"Ken is not a man who's prone to say things in a hyperbolic way. When he says significant, he means significant," Plath said.

The Merrill Lynch/Bank of America consolidation was celebrated on Wall Street for the good fit it seems for both companies. They've focused on different parts of the industry and their employees therefore have different specialties. So what's changed?

Plath says, "Remember this economy is worsening as we speak and banks are continuing to layoff large numbers of people. That's what B of A is responding too."

A Bank of America spokesperson, again, says this is consistent with their previous assessment of job loss.

Plath couldn't speculate if those job losses would be heavy in Charlotte, or focused on the Merrill side of the consolidation in New York as he'd once thought.

He does believe Wachovia's job layoffs will be more significant because Wachovia's employee footprint in the Carolinas is larger and because Wachovia is the bank being bought, and not the buyer in their deal with Wells Fargo.