PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Fleet Financial Group Inc. Chairman Terrence Murray said planned job cuts at the bank are necessary to make it more competitive regionally and nationally.

“Because of the magnitude of the recession, we in the banking industry lost a couple of years of growth and progress,” Murray said last week.

“Large manufacturing companies did this 10 years ago. Financial companies did not. This will be the beginning of a trend,” he said. Providence-based Fleet, the nation’s 15th-largest bank, is expected to announce plans this week to cut up to 5,000 jobs, or as much as 19 percent of its total work force.