BOSTON – Putnam Investments said Monday it will cut 47 jobs, including 12 portfolio managers, and merge six of its stock mutual funds into larger funds under a restructuring by the company's new top executive.

Robert Reynolds, a former Fidelity Investments executive named Putnam's president and chief executive in June, said he also will assign more responsibility to individual fund managers rather than putting small groups in charge of each fund. Reynolds also will revamp bonuses for fund managers and financial analysts to more closely align pay with performance at Putnam, which manages $116 billion in assets.

"This whole move is being made to get rid of complexity, simplify processes, and provide ownership and accountability," Reynolds said. "These are changes we would make whether markets were rising or falling."

In addition to cutting 12 portfolio managers, Putnam is immediately eliminating 35 staff positions out of a total work force of about 2,500. Most of the cuts are at Putnam's Boston headquarters, with some coming in London and Tokyo, Reynolds said.

The 70-year-old company is merging six smaller funds that collectively hold about $2 billion in assets into six larger funds that are similar in investment style.

"We had larger funds that were doing the same thing, which made no sense to me," Reynolds said.

A list of the affected smaller Putnam funds, and the funds they will be folded into: Capital Appreciation Fund into Putnam Investors Fund; Classic Equity Fund into Fund for Growth and Income; Discovery Growth Fund into New Opportunities Fund; New Value Fund into Equity Income Fund; OTC & Emerging Growth Fund into Vista Fund; and Tax Smart Equity Fund into Investors Fund.

Like other asset managers, Putnam has been hurt by the recent market downturn. Total assets managed at Putnam were $116 billion as of Oct. 31, down nearly one-third from the $172 billion that Putnam managed for mutual fund investors and institutional accounts when Reynolds was hired in June.

Putnam was sold for nearly $4 billion last year by parent Marsh & McLennan Cos. to Canada's Great-West Lifeco Inc.

Monday's cuts follow recently announced plans by Reynolds' former employer, Boston-based Fidelity Investments, to cut about 3,000 of its 44,400 employees. Reynolds spent 23 years at Fidelity, including seven as chief operating officer.