week, but president and CEO, John Tugwell, quashed speculation that hundreds of jobs could be on the chopping block and denied the bank was in turmoil.

But he could not deny that others may have to go.

Heading the list of those leaving is the bank's international manager, Malcolm Mitchell. Others from his department who are being let go include popular Fran Tucker.

Mr. Tugwell was adamant yesterday that changes at the bank have already begun to make it operate more efficiently.

But he confirmed, "We let some people go on performance issues. There were two units, the international corporate unit and the domestic corporate unit.

We have now made one unit out of it. Mr. Mitchell headed one side, but we put it together as we flatten the structure of the bank.

"We are looking at all of the business units everywhere, but Bermuda particularly. Here, we are asking ourselves why we need two units to do the same function.'' Mr. Tugwell said that there was no process on the cards by which week by week redundancies would be made, but he said if business sections were not making the right returns, action would be taken.

He said, "Here in Bermuda, it is no secret that domestic banking is barely profitable. The two largest banks are in the same boat. People in the past have called it a `social service'. The Bermudian banking operations don't make much money. What you try to do is turn them in to businesses that make a return.'' Mr. Mitchell was in the news three years ago when he was the bank's man in a Lloyd's of London venture that began in October 1994, when the bank threw its weight behind a new corporate member of Lloyd's.

Butterfield's Bank became a sponsor of Venton Underwriting Group Ltd., managed by Venton Underwriting Management Ltd., investing in three syndicates managed by Venton.

The bank also invested in Venton Underwriting Agencies, which was raising $25 million in capital at the time in Bermuda, Hong Kong and London.

The bank's London investment subsidiary, Butterfield Securities, became investment manager of the offer.

Mr. Tugwell last month said that he would quit the top job at the bank, only 15 weeks into his tenure. He said yesterday that while he expected to vacate his office before the end of the year, no timetable for his departure was established.

The British career banker is Butterfield's third chief executive in a year.

In a summer of discontent for the institution, he closed the bank's 23-man Singapore office, fired three senior executives here in Bermuda (executive vice presidents Stephen Kempe, Malcolm Brown and Colin Furr) and axed a further 50 in the London office.

The bank also took a stifling $20.6-million charge this summer ($10.5 million to cover trading losses in Singapore and $10.1 million for the cost of closing the money-bleeding operation down) which caused its earnings for the year to June 30 to plummet to $10.4 million.

John Tugwell Malcolm Mitchell