Staff morale at the Bank of Bermuda took a knock last week when a total of 71 redundancies were announced.

Staff speaking with The Royal Gazette yesterday, on condition of anonymity, said they and their colleagues were concerned about job security after learning just ahead of the Easter long weekend that 51 employees in Bermuda and 20 in overseas offices were to lose their jobs.

The bank confirmed the cuts but said it could not say how many employees would actually be out of a job as some had been given “the opportunity to explore open positions within the bank”.

Meanwhile, staff said they had learned of the job cuts “after the fact” in a company wide e-mail sent out by CEO Philip Butterfield.

Those who were spoken with said there had been no staff meetings about the development, although the bank said meetings were taking place on a division by division basis.

One employee, saying “please do not use my name, I do want to keep my job”, characterised morale at the bank as “poor” adding that many were worried that their jobs could be next to go.

But another employee took a slightly more upbeat view saying she would not say staff were “upset” but “uneasy” after news of the redundancies. Staff said that some of those being made redundant, especially those at a senior level, had forewarning that they might lose their jobs. But others were said to have been “taken by surprise” when their jobs were axed.

One staff member supported the way the cuts had been made saying they were inevitable and the bank “could not have done them any other way”.

The redundancies were said to be the “direct result of global roles affected by the amalgamation with HSBC, the discontinuation of certain capital projects, and efficiencies achieved through automation or restructured business models,” in a Press statement. While 71 jobs have been cut, some staff may have the opportunity to apply for new positions within the bank as at least two divisions, private banking and global fund services, were said to be hiring on new staff as both units were projecting growth during the year.

Overall, the bank predicted that staffing levels in Bermuda could remain constant this year, with new positions taking the place of those no longer required.

The bank, which saw its $1.3 billion sale to multinational banking giant HSBC Plc. close in February, had been saying since last October that “meaningful” redundancies would be made.

At the time, bank management said the number of jobs to be cut in the next three years might go as high as 250. At the time, the bank also said the cuts had to be made whether independent or under HSBC.

Yesterday in a Press statement, the bank cited the redundancies as “an inevitable result of our integration with HSBC”.

Although the bank said staffing levels might see little net change this year, senior executives could still be due a multi-million dollar bonus payment tied to job cuts.

The bank's top management are collectively due - under the terms of an executive incentive plan inked with HSBC as part of the sales agreement - $11 million in cash and investment options (broken down as $6.59 million in cash and $4.7 million in HSBC restricted shares), if they fire 150 bank staff while retaining 70 percent of those employees defined as ‘key'.

Yesterday the bank called this round of redundancies a part of its “ongoing process” while “divisions continue to review their structure and additional redundancies may take place over time”.

It said divisions reviewed their staffing levels on a quarterly basis.

The bank added that it was also cutting what jobs it could through natural attrition.

In March The Royal Gazette reported that the bank had trimmed 87 staff from its local workforce which went down from 1,183 in October down to 1,096 through natural attrition.

The redundancies announced last week - which were said to have been made from entry to senior levels - came from 15 division.

The bank said it was helping staff to find “alternative external employment” where necessary.