By Clarke Canfield,Associated Press Writer

BELFAST – People here are hopeful that Bank of America’s takeover of MBNA Corp. will result in job creation – not job cuts.

Bank of America’s plan to buy the Delaware-based credit card company for $35 billion in cash and stock has created uncertainty and worry about the future of MBNA’s operations in Maine. MBNA has about 3,000 employees in Maine and pumps tens of millions of dollars into the economy.

Bank of America has more customers and more products needing customer service than MBNA, giving local leaders cautious optimism that the deal will result in new opportunities.

Mayor Mike Hurley is confident that Bank of America will take a liking to Maine with MBNA’s buildings, telecommunications systems and trained work force. He tries not to dwell on the possibility of Bank of America exiting Maine.

“If Bank of America decided to pull out, it could usher in not a depression, but close to it,” Hurley said. “These are jobs that are irreplaceable. There is no recovery from the loss of those jobs.”

MBNA arrived in Maine in 1993 under the leadership of then-president Charles Cawley, whose grandfather once ran a children’s clothing manufacturer in Belfast and who spent childhood summers in the area. The company set up its regional headquarters in Camden and later built a sprawling call center campus in Belfast.

Over time, MBNA’s Maine work force grew to more than 4,500 employees. The company sparked a resurgence in Belfast, where new businesses and homes sprouted and property values grew.

The employee count has shrunk to about 3,000 – 2,000 of those in Belfast – but MBNA is still among the state’s top 10 private employers, according to the Maine Labor Department. Besides Belfast, MBNA has call centers in Portland, Brunswick, Farmington, Orono, Presque Isle and Fort Kent.

For MBNA workers, the future is up in the air with the June 30 announcement that Bank of America, based in Charlotte, N.C., is buying the company. The acquisition is expected to result in 6,000 job cuts companywide and cost savings of $850 million.

Both companies say it’s too early to know what the acquisition will mean for Maine.

After the deal is completed later this year, Bank of America will move its credit card division headquarters to MBNA’s headquarters in Wilmington, Del. Bruce Hammonds, MBNA’s chief executive officer, will serve as CEO and president of the division.

That could bode well for Maine.

If the credit card decisions were left to Bank of America officials in Charlotte – rather than MBNA officials in Wilmington – they might be less familiar with Maine and less inclined to give the state a solid look, business and municipal leaders in Belfast say.

City Manager Terry St. Peter said the deal could lead to new opportunities because of Bank of America’s size and diversity.

While MBNA has 27,000 employees and earned $2.7 billion last year, Bank of America has 175,000 employees and earned $14.1 billion. St. Peter said Bank of America could look to Maine for customer service employees for its bank accounts, mortgages, loans, insurance and other financial products.

“Bank of America has a lot more products and services than MBNA, so that gives us a prospect of having more of their services being delivered from Belfast,” St. Peter said.

But Belfast isn’t the only place competing for attention.

MBNA has other customer service operations in Delaware; Newark, N.J.; Cleveland; Atlanta; Hunt Valley, Md.; and State College, Pa. Bank of America has credit card call centers in Phoenix; Norfolk, Va.; and Horsham, Penn.

“Nobody really knows what’s going to happen,” said Ken Bridges, an analyst with the Maine Department of Labor. “We don’t know if we’re a shining star of this Delaware corporation or if some other place is.”

David Robertson, publisher of The Nilson Report credit card tracking firm in Carpinteria, Calif., said Maine in one regard will have to compete with other call centers on a cost basis.

“The question is can Maine deliver a lower cost service without sacrificing quality vis-a-vis other alternatives?” he said.

At the same time, Bank of America will have to look beyond just costs, he said.

Maine could have a leg up because of its experience with MBNA card holders, who have higher credit card usage and larger balances than customers with other credit card companies.

“In addition to crunching the numbers, there’s also a quality issue that needs to be paid attention to,” he said. “In that sense, MBNA customer service personnel might be more highly regarded, just because of the culture that been a part of MBNA from the beginning.”

The day the Bank of America-MBNA deal was announced, Gov. John Baldacci talked to officials with both companies. He expects Bank of America representatives to visit the state in the coming weeks, at which time state officials will welcome them and showcase the state’s strengths.

Besides selling the bank on things like broadband and work force, the state will try to convince the bank that Maine is a cost-effective place to do business. Baldacci said one study that will be cited shows that Maine has the second-lowest business costs for financial service call centers among 12 states in the Northeast. The state also has low taxes for banking companies, he added.

“We’re going to make a strong case,” the governor said.