Numbers from a story in Monday?s Business section on the Bank of Bermuda need to be clarified after receiving revised data from the bank.

On Monday, two Bank of Bermuda stories ran in the Business section. One dealt with 38 redundancies from the Bermuda Operations group which were announced internally at the bank on last Thursday. learned of the cuts on Friday. On that same day, the media were invited to attend a cake-cutting ceremony by bank CEO Philip Butterfield to celebrate the bank?s first year as an HSBC company. ran a separate story about this event on Monday.

In the story on redundancies, some of the numbers need to be clarified after the bank informed of revised numbers on Tuesday.

The story stated that the bank, which had offices around the globe prior to the sale, had seen its staff numbers shrink both in Bermuda and world-wide from some 1,800 before the bank sale to a current head count of 1,036. In fact, globally the work force stood at about 3,000 before the sale. Of that, some 1,200 of those jobs were held in Bermuda while the balance of 1,800 jobs were held by employees in bank offices overseas. Therefore, the story should have stated that the bank had seen its global numbers decline from a previous employee count of 3,000 instead of 1,800. confused the 1,800 global employees as the total number of employees.

The bank has said from the time it announced its proposed sale to multinational banking giant HSBC Plc. in October 2003, that its global offices would be integrated into the HSBC network, and result in a large percentage of the 1,800 global jobs being cut because of economies of scale. Last month, the bank advised that its integration process into the HSBC network was ?ahead of schedule?.

From the time the sale was first announced, the bank said there could be up to 250 redundancies in its Bermuda operations during the first three years after the sale. The bank said on Friday that it has made 80 local jobs redundant so far, including the 38 job cuts announced last week.

Monday?s story stated that the current head count for the bank was 1,036 employees, based on information from the bank given on Friday dated from January 2005. On Tuesday the bank advised that its current head count in Bermuda was 1,051 employees. The bank also said it expected its head count by the end of the year to reach 1,145 as the bank has been hiring at the same time as making redundancies.

Monday?s story said that 158 staff had left for their own reasons, again based on numbers given by the bank on Friday. The bank advised this week that 217 have actually left the bank through ?natural attrition?.

Our story on Monday also reported that 184 new staff had been hired, based on numbers from the Bank of Bermuda on Friday. On Tuesday the bank clarified that it has hired 211 new staff since the bank?s sale to HSBC.

Of the new hires, we were informed on Friday that 21 jobs went to work-permit holders. The bank advised this week that there have actually been 46 work permit holders hired since its sale to HSBC.

As stated in Monday?s story, the bank has said its human resources department is working with any staff made redundant to explore other job opportunities available at the bank.