The balance of power at Bank of America in California has shifted south.

Last week’s appointment of Liam McGee to the newly created position of president of the bank’s California operations puts the longtime Los Angeles resident in charge of the biggest banking presence in the state, one whose national headquarters may be in Charlotte, N.C., but whose origins and local control rested in San Francisco until now.

The move signals that the nation’s largest financial institution is more than willing to cast aside BofA’s roots in an effort to streamline itself and improve its bottom line.

That won’t mean a rush of moving vans as BofA employees in San Francisco head south to L.A., McGee said in an interview. But neither is he moving north, and he acknowledged that some personnel moves to shore up his support staff are likely.

“There will be some, because I live in L.A.,” McGee said. “But I also will say that some important members of my team, in finance, marketing and corporate affairs, will stay in San Francisco.”

While declining to characterize the appointment as signaling a move of the state headquarters from Northern California, bank officials said privately that such an inference is reasonable.

“If you look at how to determine the headquarters, it’s where the top person is,” said one official.

That will no doubt be interpreted as a further indignity to San Francisco, which was displaced by Charlotte as the center of the bank’s operations after the 1998 merger with NationsBank Corp. But given the need for the bank to cut costs and boost profits, sentimentality is in short supply.

“In the Bay Area there are many shareholders and employees with long relationships with the bank and the corporate culture, and a long history of being the dominant bank,” said Bruce Raabe, an analyst with Collins & Co. “That’s all been swept away.”

McGee’s promotion came less than a week after BofA said it would cut 10,000 jobs nationwide about 7 percent of its total workforce mostly from the middle-management level. And while McGee said it hasn’t been determined how many of the cutbacks will be in California, analysts say the number is likely to be substantial, and most of those removed might well be located up north.

“If they’re moving headquarters out of San Francisco to L.A., it would be an extraordinary blow to Northern California,” said Richard Bove, a banking analyst with Raymond James. “It suggests a lot more people in San Francisco are going to lose their jobs.”

Southern California already represents the largest portion of the bank’s business, which is one reason McGee was tapped for the job.

McGee’s promotion from head of BofA’s Southern California activities means he will be responsible for more than $185 billion in loans and deposits held in California and 40,000 of the bank’s 150,000 employees nationwide. He takes over Northern California responsibilities from Connie Beck, who will now run the bank’s Western region private banking operations, absorbing a job previously run by former state Treasurer Kathleen Brown, who is leaving the bank.

BofA has made it clear that it needs to become leaner and more responsive to its customer base, and McGee has received good marks for his efforts to do just that.

But like most other financial institutions, the bank is suffering from flat earnings, and is concentrating on internal growth now that the industry-wide merger frenzy has subsided. For the recently reported second quarter ended June 30, the bank’s net income rose a mere 7.7 percent to $2.06 billion ($1.23 per diluted share), from $1.92 billion ($1.07 a share) in the year-earlier quarter.

“We are transitioning the company from one built by acquisitions and mergers to one of growing organically,” McGee said. “At the same time it’s important not to have excess levels of management. I think clearly this announcement is a byproduct of that.”

Indeed, some analysts suggested that the significance of a Los Angeles-based executive taking the reins of the California operations could be nothing more than a reflection of McGee’s rise through the ranks. But it suggests that San Francisco can no longer be seen as the center of the bank’s future in the state.

“Having the leader of California be in L.A. may just be because management figured the right guy just happens to be in L.A.,” said Collins’ Raabe. “In the long run, (the restructuring) may be an important strategy for the new Bank of America to impress stockholders. The bank isn’t performing to its (optimal) level. (The restructuring) is not painless, especially for people in Northern California.”