XL Capital Ltd. plans to cut its global workforce by around ten percent this year, the company announced last night after revealing that it made a net loss of $2.6 billion last year.

That equates to nearly 400 jobs being cut across the company's 77 offices in 27 countries. How many of those jobs will go in Bermuda was not revealed last night.

Last July, the global business insurer announced 47 job cuts at its Bermudiana Road headquarters, where it currently employs around 260 people, about three-quarters of them Bermudian. That was part of 165 job cuts worldwide.

In the company's fourth-quarter earnings statement, released last night, chief executive officer Michael McGavick said the efficiencies would go beyond job cuts and were aimed at trimming annual expenses by more than $100 million.

Mr. McGavick said: "We have completed the initiatives announced in July 2008 to reduce costs. We are on track to deliver the savings targeted and the costs of this exercise are within our initial estimates.

"Therefore, we will look to trim approximately 10 percent of our current global workforce this year to streamline operations to best position XL to compete effectively. The job eliminations will be primarily focused on the corporate and functional areas.

"But efficiency means more than just job eliminations. We have also revisited other expenses and investments as we emphasise simplicity in our operations and processes. These actions are expected to cost approximately $60-80 million and will lead to a reduction in the underlying expense base of $100-$120 million a year for 2010 onwards."

XL, which has been heavily impacted by the global credit crisis, last night announced a net loss of $1.43 billion for the three-month period from October through December. Mr. McGavick described 2008 as "the toughest year in XL's history".

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