Marshall & Ilsley Corporation-parent company of Milwaukee Wisconsin-based M&I Bank-said Tuesday that it plans to eliminate 143 positions across the company, including 20 in Minnesota.

The positions that will be cut range from internal support staff to management-level employees. Affected employees were notified Tuesday and will receive “generous severance packages, including outplacement services,” according to M&I spokeswoman Sara M. Schmitz, who declined to reveal the specific Minnesota locations at which the cuts will take place.

M&I said that the layoffs are a result of an internal evaluation and a realignment of staffing and that they are not related to the planned $4.1 billion sale of the bank to BMO Financial Group, which was announced late last year. That acquisition is expected to close by July 31 and will more than double BMO's branches in the United States to 695.

M&I is the largest Wisconsin-based bank, with about 9,000 employees nationwide. The bank has 27 locations in Minnesota.