Bank of America said it plans to hire more than 50 small business bankers in New England, including 32 in Massachusetts.

Of the 32 Massachusetts hires, 13 will be in Greater Boston, the bank said. The hiring spree is part of the bank’s effort to hire 1,000 small business bankers nationwide by the middle of the year.

The bank also plans to hire 14 small business bankers in Connecticut and 13 in Rhode Island.

"For well over 200 years, New England has been a pioneer of entrepreneurial innovation, and Bank of America is proud to be supporting the region’s entrepreneurial heritage," Bob Gallery, Massachusetts president for Bank of America, said in a statement.

In Massachusetts, there are 594,487 companies with fewer than 500 employees, Bank of America estimates. Of these, 138,846 are employers, accounting for almost half of all private-sector jobs in the state.

In Connecticut and Rhode Island, the number of companies with fewer than 500 employees exceeds 400,000, the bank said.

The bank said it extended $6.4 billion in new loans to small businesses last year.