BOSTON – FleetBoston Financial Corp., capping a year marred by bad investments in troubled industries and in Latin America, said Thursday it was cutting 1,900 jobs, or about 4 percent of its work force.

The cuts would be spread throughout the company, but would largely spare employees who deal directly with customers, spokesman James Mahoney said.

“Basically, the number resulted from business planning last fall for 2003, and it’s clearly a result of the lagging economic recovery,” Mahoney said.

The cuts, a quarter of which already have taken place, were announced as Fleet reported fourth-quarter earnings of $261 million, or 24 cents per share.